Suddenly, it was there: a chatbot that significantly reduces the workload for students. Since the launch of ChatGPT on 30 November, the bot developed by tech company OpenAI has been making headlines worldwide. Anyone can give the self-learning bot instructions, ask it questions and enlist its help with written assignments. Free of charge.

While lecturers and examination boards are worrying about the implications for education and examination methods, students are already making avid use of the possibilities offered by the programme.

‘I’ve been using ChatGPT every day since it became available’, says an international studies student (22) who also takes Chinese courses. He prefers to remain anonymous because he does not know if what he is doing constitutes fraud.

He uses the chatbot to prepare for exams, among other things. ‘Today I had a listening exam in Mandarin. A number of listening assignments had been uploaded to Brightspace beforehand, and at least one of them would be on the exam. You would usually listen to and translate those clips yourself, but that takes a huge amount of time and effort. So the first thing I did was transcribe all the fragments and translate them into Dutch. Those kinds of transcriptions always contain a lot of errors, so I ordered the chatbot to rewrite it into a correct Dutch version. It gave me a corrected version of the original texts, where it guessed which speaker was speaking when. I printed those texts and learnt them by heart. This helped me thoroughly prepare for the exam in a quick way.’

The exam went well, he says. ‘But maybe it’s not what the lecturer would have wanted.’

He also uses the programme to learn Mandarin himself. ‘Learning Mandarin characters is very difficult. So, I told the chatbot to come up with mnemonics for 50 of those characters. The fact that ChatGPT is apparently capable of making up mnemonics in a matter of seconds goes to show that it is much better at creative thinking than me. I was immensely impressed by that. So it also helps me be more creative and productive.’

The other day, the student also secretly used the programme during a take-home exam. I only had one hour left to answer three essay questions, I didn’t know if I would make it. So I copied and pasted information and key terms from the course slides into ChatGPT, and asked the bot to answer the essay questions. It did so very well and quickly, at an academic level. ‘And I passed my exam with a good mark.’

A philosophy student (25), who wishes to remain anonymous as well, has also used the bot several times. ‘I used it for a course in which you had to submit a weekly summary of different texts. ChatGPT can write those summaries for me in seconds. After a few minor adjustments, I handed it in.’

He also used it as a tool for writing argumentative papers. ‘For example, you can instruct the chatbot to write an introduction to your paper, or to come up with arguments for your proposition.’

In addition, he uses the programme to prepare for exams. ‘I asked the chatbot questions about the reading, asked for explanations of arguments in favour of and against certain theories, and had it write summaries of articles I had to read.’

However, not all students are as eager to use the programme. ‘I don’t feel comfortable using the chatbot’s work as if it were my own’, says Johannes (27, clinical psychology). ‘The bot uses other people's work without referencing it, so you don't really know where it gets the information from. That kind of feels like fraud and cheating. And it might be penalised if they find out.’

Still, he is not ruling out the possibility of using the programme for his studies in the future. ‘Some psychology assignments are really tedious to write, things that are always the same and that cost you a lot of time. Perhaps I'll have the chatbot write those up in the future.’

USEFUL TOOL

For Wout Goesaerts (21, astronomy research master), the arrival of the language programme came just a little too late. Last year, he wrote his astronomy bachelor’s thesis without help from a tool. Afterwards, he reflected on how ChatGPT could have been helpful in writing his thesis.

‘Firstly, the bot could have been of great help to me in writing the literature review’, he notes. ‘Because it knows so much about academic publications that it can answer very specific questions on the most complicated subjects.’

Plus, it would have saved him a lot of time. It takes a lot of time to find sources on those kinds of subjects yourself, so asking the chatbot to provide the information is very helpful. The information was also consistent with what I learned myself during my bachelor's programme Astronomy.’

Goesaerts also had the bot rewrite his introduction. ‘It only took the robot a few seconds and it did a pretty good job.’

According to him, using ChatGPT ‘would have saved him days of work’, the conclusion of his thesis would probably have been ‘more comprehensive and accurate’ and he would have written it ‘faster and more diligently’. Goesaerts: ‘After all, the programme lets you check whether you haven’t forgotten to apply any relevant information or discussions. It pointed out to me that I had.’

NOT ALLOWED UNCONDITIONALLY

Despite this, the use of ChatGPT is not allowed unconditionally, informs university spokesperson Caroline van Overbeeke. ‘It’s not prohibited, but it does require the necessary academic integrity and skills from students.’ As such, the bot may only be used if the programme has not placed any restrictions on it. ‘However, we do expect students to properly cite the chatbot’s text excerpts and remain critical of the quality of those texts as information sources.’

Van Overbeeke also points to Article 6.1 of the Rules and Regulations ‘This stipulates that any action that may impede the evaluator’s assessment is prohibited. If it is unclear to the evaluator whether - and which parts of - a completed assignment are the work of a student or an AI, this constitutes fraud, just like copying and rewriting an argument or statement in your own words.’

The university does not want to prohibit the use of ChatGPT. ‘We believe Artificial Intelligence plays an important role in education, now and in the future. Therefore, a general ban on ChatGPT is not a suitable course of action, according to the university.’

The students agree that the chatbot can be beneficial to education. ‘It will become increasingly important to read critically and ask the right question’, says the international studies student. ‘However, good writing skills may no longer be necessary in the future; the chatbot can do that for us. Many people object to that, but I don’t necessarily see that as a problem. When computers were introduced, people were also pessimistic because handwriting would deteriorate.’

Stijn Vleugels (21, astronomy research master) mainly sees the bot as a good tool. ‘If you use the chatbot for your studies, you already need the skills that enable you to use the bot effectively. You have to be able to ask it the right questions in order to get the right information. Also, you need to be able to critically reflect on the bot's output. So ChatGPT can help you with your studies, but you don’t want to be fully dependent on it.’

The philosophy student agrees. ‘I think it’s best to use ChatGPT as a tool to work more creatively and productively; above all, it saves you a lot of time. However, the bot does occasionally slip up, so you need to have a good understanding of the subject if you want to make use of it.’

Goesaerts: ‘If students become dependent on the chatbot, they might lose the motivation to do assignments themselves. In that case, they’d learn a lot less than they would if the chatbot didn’t exist. But I don’t think it should be banned completely, because it can be a useful part of the learning process, just like the internet and calculators.’

However, for students, it is still unclear whether - and in which cases - they are allowed to use ChatGPT. ‘The university should provide clear information and set clear rules on how to use the bot’, thinks Goesaerts. ‘That way, all students can use it in a responsible and proper way.’

Van Overbeeke explains that the Rules and Regulations sufficiently cover the matter, but that ‘further information will follow shortly to explain to students and lecturers how the rules apply to ChatGPT’. In addition, a notice will be posted in the student newsletter of 15 February and on the student website, and next week, there will be a blog post ‘with practical tips for lecturers and students’. Van Overbeeke: ‘And if students have any questions, they can contact their lecturer or programme department.’

Next week in part 2: How are teachers and exam committees dealing with ChatGPT? 'This is a threat to our exam model'