It is evident that the education landscape is undergoing a transformation caused by advancement and availability of AI solutions. Generative AI such as ChatGPT are highly used by students to complete their university courses. While this technology offers numerous benefits to students, it also presents a unique set of challenges for teachers. In this blog post, we will explore the difficulties faced by teachers as students rely on AI tools for their academic pursuits.
AI-driven Challenges: Ensuring Authenticity and Academic Integrity
One of the primary concerns for teachers when students use AI tools like ChatGPT is the issue of authenticity and academic integrity. With the help of AI, students can generate well-written essays, research papers, assignments and even thesis works. This way they avoid spending hours researching relevant literature and finding correct ways to describe their thoughts. Consequently, their understanding and ability to analyse the course content will most likely decrease.
Furthermore, using AI raises concerns about the originality of their work and the potential for plagiarism. Teachers must develop strategies and tools to detect and address instances of academic corner-cutting effectively.
In addition, teachers will more often encounter misconceptions that students may have from relying solely on AI-generated content. Now more than ever it is paramount to emphasise the importance of critical thinking and encourage students to go beyond the AI tools to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the learning content.
Challenge of Evaluating Assignments
With AI tools being utilised by students, traditional evaluation methods may become less effective. Teachers must adapt to these changes and find alternative assessment approaches that can measure students' understanding and critical thinking skills. Traditional evaluation methods may not be sufficient for evaluating the genuine capabilities of students who employ AI tools.
Instruct Students to Explain How They Have Used AI in Their Course Work
Instructing students to explain how they have used AI in their course work is an opportunity for fostering transparency and deeper learning experiences. By encouraging them to articulate their AI-assisted processes and thought patterns, educators can gain valuable insights into their understanding and application of AI technology.
This approach serves a dual purpose. First, it promotes self-reflection among students, prompting them to consider how AI fits into their learning journey and how it complements their educational goals. Second, it allows teachers to assess whether students are harnessing AI as a tool to enhance their comprehension and creativity or relying on it as a shortcut. This way, educators can guide their students toward responsible AI utilization, emphasizing its role as a supplementary resource rather than a substitute for genuine intellectual engagement. In doing so, teachers can help students develop a well-rounded skill set that encompasses both AI-enhanced capabilities and critical thinking, preparing them for success in an AI-driven world.
Decrease in Student Engagement and Participation
Use of AI tools can lead to a decrease in student engagement during in-person or virtual classroom sessions. When students have quick access to AI-generated answers, they may become less motivated to actively participate in discussions or ask probing questions. Teachers need to find innovative ways to foster engagement, such as incorporating interactive activities, collaborative projects, and real-world applications of the subject matter.
As AI tools such as ChatGPT have become increasingly present in everyday life of many people, teachers have faced new challenges in delivering effective education. Undoubtedly, these changes foster evolving teaching methods that were in use for decades.
Luckily, challenges that were created by technological advancement can be addressed and solved by using other digital tools in your teaching. Learn more about the ways to overcome AI development challenges in teaching by using collaborative business simulations in your teaching.
This text was created by the RealGame Business Simulation team.
RealGame is a Finnish business simulation provider. RealGame creates simulations based on decades of experience and latest academic research. Business simulations by RealGame are created by educators for educators with a purpose of providing hands-on experiences and an understanding of how supply chain operations evolve continuously, hour by hour. RealGame is unique in that it has a clock-driven operational mode, which allows for generating transaction-specific data for business analysis and strategic planning.
Please cite this as:
RealGame (2023). Navigating the Challenges: Teachers and Students in the Era of AI-Driven Learning Realgame.fi. Retrieved [Date], from https://www.realgame.fi/