SFU instructors are embracing ChatGPT to enhance learning and foster critical thinking skills

Though ChatGPT is less than three months old, some SFU instructors are already integrating it into student assignments.

What does ChatGPT mean for teaching at SFU? Though the new AI technology is less than three months old, some SFU instructors are already integrating it into student assignments. 

ChatGPT 3.5 is an AI language model that is part of a growing and rapidly changing machine learning subfield that uses algorithms to generate new data, such as images, text or sounds.  

ChatGPT can be used to write essays, poetry and HTML code and has generated a lot of concern about academic integrity, especially within classes with large writing components. Some instructors are turning that concern on its head by embracing AI as a tool to enhance and extend learning.

“We need to redirect our conversations and energy away from the possibility of students ‘cheating’ on assessments that were essentially busy-work in the first place and start exploring how AI tools like ChatGPT can help students learn to apply content and become knowledge producers,” says Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology senior lecturer Leanne Ramer. 

In her classes, Ramer leverages ChatGPT’s capacity to summarize large quantities of information to help students generate research paper topics. 

“In one of my courses students are asked to synthesize results of several studies to examine an experimental treatment for a neurological disease. ChatGPT and other tools like Perplexity.ai can provide a very high-level summary of a field. A sample query might be ‘What experimental treatments are under development for Alzheimer's Disease?’ This generates a list of four or five experimental treatments on their condition of interest. Students can choose one to develop a targeted search strategy for a relevant academic database. The AI tools are a great starting point, and often outperform search engines with the right prompting. Learning to leverage the potential of AI is a crucial skill, and one that our students need to develop.”  

ChatGPT’s output is also factually unreliable, notes English lecturer Nicky Didicher, who plans to use that unreliability to help ENG 234 students foster critical thinking skills.

“I am planning an activity to help students learn how to use our library’s academic databases effectively by asking them first to search for references related to a relatively famous poem in English using ChatGPT. One problem I have found with ChatGPT is that, in searching for academic articles, it often provides references that include legitimate mixed in with fabricated information, such as the titles of publications that don't exist matched with authors who do. By comparing these articles to peer-reviewed resources they access through the library databases, they can experience first-hand why interrogating where your information is coming from is important.”

Elizabeth Elle, Vice-Provost Learning and Teaching, adds that while the technology may be new, our commitment to academic integrity is not. 

“The initial reaction of many people, including me, was that Chat GPT and other forms AI were going to be problematic for academic integrity. But, when you spend a bit of time with it, you see that it wouldn’t be effective at most assignments, it’s not creative enough. Our existing policies already support instructors who expect students to do their own work without help from AI. Technologies come and go, but our approach around academic integrity at SFU remains the same: we work collectively to create a culture where academic integrity is valued. Yes, we have a policy that supports instructors in addressing dishonest behaviour if it happens, but the fundamental goal is educating students about appropriate behaviour, and getting them excited about and engaged in learning. It’s inspiring to see how our fabulous faculty are adapting their assignments to take advantage of this moment in time.”  

For people concerned about academic integrity, Elle notes that there is currently a working group led by the Registrar that is re-thinking our academic integrity policy and procedures, and one goal is to streamline processes to reduce the workload for faculty members. “It starts with designing a course and assessments that are robust to cheating—the staff in CEE can help with this—and then adding more supports for reporting when you need to do it.”  

• To learn about business professor and Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation & Entrepreneurship Terri Griffith’s approach to academic integrity and ChatGPT, check out her recent article in The Conversation, Why using AI tools like ChatGPT in my MBA innovation course is expected and not cheating

If you want to know more about ChatGPT and other AI tools, the Centre for Educational Excellence is offering a workshop in partnership with SFU’s Academic Integrity Coordinator on March 1, 1:30-2:30, that explores the implications of ChatGPT and other AI writing tools on assessment design, course policies and academic integrity. 

For information on academic integrity resource, visit the academic integrity office’s website.