The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

SOME professors at the University of The Bahamas have complained about the effect ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence platforms have had on education, saying students are using them to write essays or cheat on assignments.

Daniel Thompson, chairman of UB’s School of Business and president of the Union of Tertiary Educators of the Bahamas, told The Tribune UB professors have encountered instances where students have used AI for assistance in essays, online assignments, and exams. He said measures are being taken to limit AI usage in academic work.

ChatGPT, launched in November 2022 by an AI research laboratory, enables users to have human-like conversations. The platform can be used to write essays, solve mathematical problems, and research various topics. People in many industries have embraced the platform, but according to a recent survey by Study.com, 43 per cent of educators feel ChatGPT will make their jobs more challenging, while nearly six in ten believe it will make their lives easier. Many educators are concerned that AI platforms threaten academic integrity by encouraging new forms of cheating and plagiarism.

Mr Thompson said to combat the problem, professors are becoming more creative with assignments, requiring students to provide more context in their responses. One platform used by UB, Moodle, helps monitor students during quizzes by requiring the use of webcams and restricting access to other browsers.

He also highlighted that increasing in-person exams is an effective way to prevent AI misuse, as it allows professors to better oversee students’ performance. Platforms like Turnitin are also used to detect plagiarism.

As an assistant professor of economics, Mr Thompson said his assignments are numeracy-based, and he has encountered students using AI to solve problems. To address this, he now structures questions in a way that AI cannot easily replicate, demanding more detailed responses.

While Mr Thompson acknowledged some professors’ challenges with AI’s impact on students’ work, he also sees AI as a potentially beneficial tool. He believes AI can assist students with grammar, study techniques, and subject comprehension.

He noted that students using AI became more common during the COVID-19 pandemic when classes were held entirely online.

“In many instances, we found that a lot of AI issues became prominent when students returned to the classroom and there were a lot of quality control issues as well,” he said. “That’s why the university took a conscious effort to, as much as possible, to insist on face-to-face, in-person class teaching, because you find that there was a major gap.”

The US National Education Association has noted that some educators find ChatGPT useful for restructuring assignments, simplifying lesson materials, and offering creative project ideas.