What questions might I get about ChatGPT and my courses?
- How might my students be using ChatGPT?
- Students may see ChatGPT as another type of search engine and begin using it to find resources. This can be very tricky because ChatGPT is known to use fake resources that it generates itself. It's also problematic since it doesn't help students to learn information literacy skills related to information retrieval, evaluation, or application.
- Students may also see ChatGPT as an easy, time-saving way to complete an assignment. Yes, the software could easily do a homework assignment for them (depending on the assignment) but by doing that the student is not learning or strengthening any of their skills. They are simply moving information from point A to point B.
- How can I help my students see the value or danger of ChatGPT in my course?
- Provide them with examples of how it could be valuable or dangerous in class. Active learning with ChatGPT can be quite beneficial since it shows students the mistakes that are common with the software as well as how it could be helpful in brainstorming or generating concepts to further think about.
- Emphasize that ChatGPT is just a tool and like all tools we have to learn its limits as well as how to identify overuse. Each tool can only do so much so it's good to know what it can and cannot do. Overusing a tool can result in a poor product or result, especially with something like ChatGPT since using it too much prevents students from learning or strengthening their skills.
- How does this affect searching for resources?
- One of the most important things to understand about ChatGPT is that it is not a search engine. If you treat it like a search engine you will notice that it makes it more difficult to determine the validity, reliability, or usefulness of whatever results it gives you, because you can't see the source material. You have to trust it to give you the right information, and it does not do that nearly often enough.
- Cowles Library strongly recommends that any instructor teaching information literacy skills invite a librarian to speak to their students about research & sources. When we teach these skills we rely on the Association of College & Research Libraries' (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy, which identifies numerous skills, knowledge practices, & dispositions.
- How is AI different from a Google or database search?
- When using a traditional search engine, be it Google or in a database like PsycINFO or PubMed, you get to see the actual results, sift through them, and apply your information literacy skills to them. You can then make choices about what you have found and determine through analysis which sources best fit your information need. With ChatGPT you don't see the sources, you just get a compilation of information from sources, so there is a new, extra layer between you and the original information. That makes it very difficult to apply your information literacy skills since you can't see any source material.
- While ChatGPT can help you, how does it also get in your way?
- One of the biggest issues with ChatGPT is that it does not value true statements or information. It simply tries to answer questions however it sees fit based on its programming, which is kept secret by the OpenAI researchers who run it. It also is not connected to the current Internet so its database of knowledge is not up-to-date.
- It has been known to frequently fabricate citations to sources that do not exist. It will give false information to one user while giving true information to another on the same question.
- How can ChatGPT help you in your everyday work as a faculty member?
- Assists you in breaking down a complex topic into simpler components to help you describe it to college students (i.e. undergraduate psychology students.)
- Provides you with outlines for lesson plans
- Shows you examples of relationships between unrelated topics in order to find connections you would not have thought of yourself
- Find author names on specific research topics
