Academic integrity focuses on avoiding cheating, plagiarism, and fraudulent ways of using someone else’s work. It is the foundation of higher education that values basic principles such as honesty, truthfulness, and responsible use of information. However, with the rise of technology and the emergence of artificial intelligence, especially ChatGPT or AI-generated content creation, academic integrity undergoes a major threat. Although these tools and technologies can be utilized for various benefits, they also present a potential challenge to academic integrity.
In this blog, we will delve into various ways in which ChatGPT can raise concerns about academic integrity and various strategies to counter this menace.
Rise of ChatGPT
ChatGPT stands for Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer which is a chatbot based on a language model. It is trained to follow the commands of human instructions and generate a detailed response. It has become a valuable tool in the academic field due to its ability to comprehend and respond to natural language queries.
Recently, a survey was conducted by intelligent.com to find out the use of Chatbots in academic findings. It reveals the following data:
This shows how ChatGPT has become a challenge for our community.
Challenges to academic integrity
Many educators have utilized chatbots for quick learning experiences, automated administrative tasks, and other academic purposes. However, the increasing use of this technology comes with various consequences as well which are discussed below:
Possibility of Plagiarism
The use of ChatGPT has become very common among students for academic purposes. This creates a possibility of plagiarism as the students can use AI-generated essays and results to copy their assignments in a shorter period and eventually submit the assignments that are not their own work but rather plagiarized.
Unfair Advantage to Students
Another challenge is the unfair advantage to those students having access to language chatbots like ChatGPT because they can create error-free and high-quality assignments than those who don’t have access to these chatbots. Therefore, it creates inequalities in assessment and ultimately poses a challenge to academic integrity.
Devaluation of Degrees
The increasing use of chatbots allows students to complete their assignments with little or no effort. It demoralizes the basic purpose of higher education by hindering the creativity and intellectual ability of students. Hence, it results in the devaluation of degrees.
Lack of critical thinking
The use of chatbots provides instant responses to even complex questions. This enables students to copy ideas from ChatGPT to solve their assignment problems. Therefore, the natural process of critical thinking of students gets hampered which creates a challenge for academic integrity.
Strategies to Counter the Challenges in the Real World
In this era of rapid technological advancement, the use of chatbots cannot be completely prohibited for students as the technology itself is neutral: it can be used for both positive and negative purposes. However, various strategies can be implemented to minimize the challenges of ChatGPT in the real world:
Use of plagiarism detection tools
With the rise of AI generative chatbots, there comes a variety of plagiarism detection tools to detect not only plagiarism but also advanced use of chatbots in assignments. Therefore, academic administration should invest in advanced technology and techniques to identify AI-generated content. This can help to counter the challenge of ChatGPT efficiently.
Awareness of penalties after using ChatGPT
The academic instructors need to set clear guidelines for students on how and when to use chatbots in solving a particular assignment. It will enable ethical use of the technology and ultimately minimize its threat to academic integrity.
Look for irregularities in language
Another strategy to counter the challenge of chatbots is to look for irregularities in the language of work submitted by the students. AI-generated content is sophisticated and mostly error-free, unlike human-written content. Therefore, the instructors can identify the content copied from ChatGPT easily.
Require proper citations and attribution
Chatbots such as ChatGPT are not capable of creating citations to the original research. Therefore, the instructors should require students to provide proper attribution so that there is a minimum possibility of copying the assignments from ChatGPT.
Design open-ended assignments
Another strategy to cater to the challenge of ChatGPT efficiently is to design open-ended assignments for students rather than traditional essays. Instructors should encourage students to present in front of the class after selecting their own research questions. It will ensure critical thinking in students while minimizing the excessive use of ChatGPT.
Conclusion
In this digital age, the use of advanced technologies can transform the lives of humans in a surprising way. The recently developed language chatbots such as ChatGPT have revolutionized the way we make content. It can provide swift and detailed responses to a large range of prompts using algorithms and datasets. The responsible use of ChatGPT can provide enormous benefits.
However, its excessive use can present various challenges to academic integrity, especially in higher education. It increases the possibility of plagiarism, hinders the critical thinking process in students, and provides an unfair means for students to ace their exams. Therefore, it is sine qua non to implement various strategies efficiently to counter this challenge and ensure the ethical use of ChatGPT.