WAND Investigates continues our deep dive of artificial intelligence. We sat down with local college professors to learn how they're adjusting their assignments college policies and communication, to adapt to AI.
Generative AI is an incredibly powerful tool at students' fingertips, instantly and for free.
"One of the things that we're also looking to do individually and as we have these discussions, is integrate this technology into our instruction so that students can use it ethically because they're going to use it regardless," Professor Christopher Schmersahl, of Richland Community College, told WAND News.
Richland formed a subcommittee last spring, to dig into AI, and understand how students might use it as a tool — or to cheat.
"They can go on TikTok or YouTube and there's any number of tutorials that show them, hey, this is how you can have I write an essay for you wholesale," Schmersahl said.
Richland worked to quickly implement technology to detect AI material in essays and other work when they're submitted by students.
"Things keep shifting and changing. So we use the Copyleaks scanner here to check for this type of plagiarism. That seems to be working pretty well, then it wasn't, then it was again. What happens is that the AI technology is evolving, and so the scanners have to change to keep up with," Schmersahl added.
As colleges like Richland race to keep up with AI, professors are also considering changing the types of assignments they hand out to students.
"Avoid the 'just spit back some information at me,' that's way too easy for the internet or AI to do. And I'm not sure that it really tells us a lot about learning either," Dr. Laurie Hughes, a professor at Richland Community College, told WAND News.
Dr. Hughes said she has made changes to her syllabus. She is now asking students to focus on personal interaction and reflection, as well as group projects.
"I do want to see that they're able to read, comprehend and then articulate it — and they can only do that to practice. So I try to really incorporate some positive tactics to encourage that, which include formative assignments, scaffolded assignments. Everything builds on everything else, assignments that ask for personal reflection, which ChatGPT — as far as I know — cannot do," Dr. Hughes said.
Both professors said it's crucial students are truly learning and building critical thinking skills.
"So we can't have students who have no comprehension or understanding of what the AI has produced. Turning that in, passing the courses and then going into a workforce where they will ultimately be unsuccessful because they won't be able to engage with the product that the tool has created for it," Schmersahl added.
Schmersahl is also working with the Richland committee to set rules for students' AI use in the classroom.
"Students might, for example, be using something like Grammarly, which is like, spelling, grammar check on steroids. And so I personally don't have a problem with that. And a lot of people here don't. It can be a very helpful tool for students to use. The issue is with that is how much do you allow the students to use it? Do you have it read, write wholesale?" Schmersahl questioned.
The committee is also discussing how professors should handle cheating with AI.
"So that would be having specific syllabus language and maybe a suggested, interview prompt. So if I saw a student's work that didn't match work that they turned in earlier, or if they're a college freshman and they're writing post-doctoral level work, then we could call them in for a meeting or a sit down in a compassionate way," Schmersahl explained.
Schmersahl has already had these tough conversations with a handful of his students who turned in AI-generated work.
The professors said it's been a learning curve and one that is expected to fundamentally change the way students learn and complete coursework.
"I think that's going to materially change Richland and then it will it'll probably take a few years to really get there. But I think we are at the forefront right now. We are ahead of many other colleges in terms of already having policies and an active work group, and faculty are really engaged with trying to figure this all out," Dr. Hughes told WAND News.
Click here and here to watch the other reports in our series regarding AI.
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