Artificial intelligence like ChatGPT forces NZ universities to rethink focus on essay writing

Chatgpt bot writing answers with pen on paper, Generative AI. Robot. Photo / 123RF

A new artificial intelligence programme able to churn out passable high school and university essays is forcing education institutions to move away from the traditional assessment type in order to prevent cheating.

ChatGPT has been high on the minds of academics over the summer break as they look to modify their assessments and consider how to use the technology for teaching.

Auckland University, Victoria University of Wellington and Auckland University of Technology are all looking to rely less on essays to assess learning and move towards in-person assessments like oral examinations or presentations.

Where written assessments continued to be used they were likely to rely more heavily on individual responses, in-class learning, critiquing and fact-checking.

An Auckland University spokeswoman said the institution saw the potential for improvement of assessments thanks to rethinking forced by the technology but was also wary that academic integrity was not compromised.

They were reminding students of academic integrity and the consequences of inappropriate use of AI text generators like ChatGPT while teaching staff were modifying assessment questions and structure to require more “authentic individual responses”.

“Academics are also considering the use of more low-stakes, in-person assessments that place importance on the process of producing work, not the product, and a range of in-person assessment opportunities, such as viva voce examinations, presentations, podcasts, interviews, and group work.”

The university was also advising staff to consider using a detector tool such as GPTZero but said detection was “at best a short-term, partial solution” which should not be “relied upon”.

Professor Damon Salesa, Auckland University of Technology vice-chancellor, says AI is an opportunity and a challenge for educators. Photo / Supplied

Victoria University of Wellington Vice-Provost (Academic) Professor Stuart Brock said they too were working through how to adapt.

He compared artificial intelligence like ChatGTP to the introduction of calculators in high schools.

“Back in the 1950s we didn’t just get them to do complicated multiplication or long division and short division we might get them to do more interesting things using the mathematical tools that were available to them.”

Brock said it would differ by subject but changes would include focusing on skills that weren’t easily replicated by the tools.

“We want to move the focus away from creation to something like evaluation. We want to move to a process of fact-checking and critical thinking rather than the generation of content.

“If your job previously was to write an essay on a particular topic, you might now get the AI tool like ChatGPT to generate an essay and your job now would be to evaluate that essay, to check it for accuracy, to evaluate how well the tool had done.”

But Brock said the key was how to use it to enhance teaching and learning for students rather than trying to impose a blanket ban.

As a start, it was making university staff think through changes in their method of teaching.

“People tend to focus more on academic integrity. It’s much bigger than that in much more exciting ways.”

Auckland University of Technology vice-chancellor Professor Damon Salesa agreed ChatGPT presented extraordinary opportunities for teaching and learning, he said.

He too was encouraging staff to have students critique AI generated text or codes but said that was just the beginning.

“Just as AI learns and grows, so do people about how to use it.”

AI was going to be part of life in the future and it was a university’s job to get students ready to live and work with it, Salesa said.

ChatGPT would change the value of essay writing in the workforce so it was more important to teach students to think critically so they could revise, reflect and connect the content to personal experience in order to deliver something more authentic.

Salesa said students already faced a range of assessment types but it could be that there was more focus on assessments within classrooms.

The university had created a staff guide suggesting assessments require students to include in-class discussions or activities; course-specific readings; the use of visual, audio or video components; and personal experience, as well as moving to more oral assessments.

Orewa College principal and president of the Auckland Secondary Schools Principals’ Association Greg Pierce said schools were figuring out how to approach the use of AI in schools. Photo / Dean Purcell

ChatGPT was creating a challenge for high schools as well, said Orewa College principal and president of the Auckland Secondary Schools Principals’ Association Greg Pierce.

“It’s here. It’s only going to become more complex and more accessible to all. We need to think of innovative ways of how to use it in a productive and constructive way.”

He said plagiarism had been an ongoing challenge ever since education started being formally assessed so staff needed to have a good understanding of student capabilities and balance that against the work students produced.

“It’s relatively a new website. We need to be aware that it’s accessible to all and that whole area of AI is only going to get deeper and more complex. It’s such a big issue, all schools are coming to terms with it and how to approach it. We’re still in that process ourselves and I suspect the vast majority of schools and principals, probably around the globe are in that same position.”

He said teachers needed to focus more on highlighting context for students.

“Putting textual situations in place which students can relate to - how they operate in their own world.”