Since ChatGPT was launched in 2022, use of the program has become increasingly prominent in the classroom environment. Although many teens have found the website to be helpful in their studies, there have been many situations where students have abused ChatGPT by cheating or plagiarizing.
“ChatGPT has been helpful for me because it helps me study and gain more information that teachers haven’t told me,” said Audrey Taylor, a student at The Walker School in Marietta, Georgia. “It was really difficult to find practice problems, and ChatGPT was an easy way I could get practice problems, and they were accurate and helped me.”
Audrey is a perfect example of a student using ChatGPT for the right purpose. For most students, the website is a useful study tool and a helpful way to clarify topics covered in class. Specifically, Taylor had noticed a significant difference in her understanding of AP World History from the first semester of sophomore year to the second. She struggled less frequently and even noticed her grades improving over time.
While attending her current school, Audrey has overheard many situations where students have been caught using ChatGPT for the wrong purposes. “Someone got in trouble, got a zero, and had to go to the head of school and the honor council.” Taylor said.
There are severe consequences for students who have used ChatGPT maliciously. Not only do the offenders have to attend a court-like hearing in front of the honor council, but they lose trust from their teachers, parents, and peers. The machine is a test of students’ integrity and must be used wisely.
“My friend who goes to Northeastern University in Boston put his essay into ChatGPT to help with grammar mistakes, and whatever his English teacher used to check it said it was completely ChatGPT.” said Maeve Scruggs, an undergraduate student at Texas Christian University. “It made it look like he didn’t write it but he did write it.”
Although the technology used to find plagiarism is successful and helpful in many situations, there have been situations where students have been falsely accused of using ChatGPT to write their essays and assignments. ChatGPT makes it difficult to distinguish between harmless use and cheating. Luckily, the student was able to recover a draft and present it at his college hearing, preventing him from being punished or expelled.
“It’s up to educators to adjust to new technologies,” said Dr. Joe Dennis, Chair of the Department of Mass Communications at Piedmont University.
Joe has adjusted many of the assignments he assigns to his students, requiring personal experiences to be included instead of simply stating history facts. By making writing assignments more personal, students are unable to use ChatGPT to copy or plagiarize because they must incorporate their own experiences and personality into their writing.
“I think ChatGPT is scary because of how well it works,” Maeve said. “I think there definitely needs to be a limit, and I think it has progressed so much in the past year that the things it will eventually be capable of scare me.”
As ChatGPT becomes more popular, students are beginning to think for themselves less and depend on AI more. Specifically in college, Maeve has found it concerning that many of her peers will enter entire quizzes and assignments into ChatGPT and copy each answer, which prevents them from learning or utilizing their critical thinking. Similar to our dependence on cell phones, as ChatGPT becomes more prevalent and advanced, students will become increasingly reliant on the machine for their education.
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