?? PROVOCATION: Can we outsource our learning to ChatGPT? ??
Stefan Stremersch
Professor @ Erasmus University | Founder @ MTI2 | Author | Athlete
This research just released in IJRM - International Journal of Research in Marketing is quite provocative (find it here). ChatGPT (GPT 4.0) can approximate human evaluations by university professors of student assignments at a much lower cost (well done Bernd Skiera for this creative piece). If GPTs are able to submit great student assignments (not this paper, but visible from daily practice…??) and if they can grade these assignments equally well as professors can, we should self-reflect a bit as a university community:
1?? On the usage of GPTs by students: after an initial scare by universities banning the usage of GPTs among students, most universities are now opening up and allowing students to embrace the usage of GPTs. Given the powerful assistance GPTs can give, this seems to make sense.
2?? On the usage of GPTs by faculty: most faculty I know are already using GPTs for their research and service activities, there is no stopping it in teaching activities.
3?? BUT: when we see learning as an automated process between GPT submissions evaluated and foreseen feedback by GPTs, something has to be broken in our academic teaching models that needs fixing, right?
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Without too much thought put into this, I invite my LinkedIn followers to reflect (and comment ??) on the following questions that popped up in my mind when reading this paper.
?? Are we still teaching what we need to teach in a post-ChatGPT era? It seems that creativity, critical thinking, curiosity, empathy, and moving people, will become more differentiating skills as others will be automated (writing code, text processing, data analysis). Are we teaching those? Do our curricula sufficiently cater to those (in a prior paper in Journal of Marketing Russ Winer , Nuno Almeida Camacho and myself have argued we do not!)? Are we evaluating those skills most critical? And do we give feedback to learners on that? And how can this be organized other than in smaller groups (where today because of efficiency we are trying to organize in bigger groups)?
?? Are we sufficiently evaluating our evaluations? Since the advent of ChatGPT, students have been adopting it and universities have struggled with it. However, the challenge ChatGPT gives us is that it fundamentally challenges the way we assess students. Thus, we need to probably focus our evaluation on critical skills that ChatGPT cannot easily automate and we need to do so in an unbiased manner. Over time, I became a big proponent of testing knowledge by multiple choice exams, as they are very fair without bias, despite not being able to test anything else than knowledge (having a repertoire of knowledge in your head without needing to search for it online remains a differentiator in my mind). I combined it with case assignments which I will need to revise given the rise of ChatGPT. I need to find a way to train and assess the learner skills and attitudes that will be a differentiator in the future; my first thoughts go in the direction of hands-on project work in a collaborative setting (adopting some of the 10-20-70 logic that has permeated companies). One consequence is that case teaching will be seriously challenged as an effective teaching method.
?? How do we integrate GenAI into our learning journeys? When we talked about learning in the past, we talked about human learning. Today, we talk about how AI learns and how it connects with our own human learning (the artificially augmented brain if you will). Universities still need to start exploring that space and even ask the relevant questions, such as: “As a learning institution how do we sustain our relevance?”. For example, if ChatGPT can give you equal quality feedback to your university’s professors, why then attend that university and pay the tuition fees? Does that mean we need universities that provide an unusual playground where you learn real human skills and attitudes that cannot be gained by the feedback provided by a GPT?
#GenerativeAI #Academia #Feedback #University #Education
DIGITALISATION| EXPERIENCIAL MARKETING| Consultant| Educator| Author
4 个月The "Universitas magistrorum et scholarium"?can only profit by #AI implementation. Thanks professor Stefan Stremersch for stimulating discussion?? The question is not whether to outsource, as WE - humans already done this a long time ago... The current challenge is HOW to properly manage the #human-AI interaction, should WE want "to be kept in the loop" ?? Further reflection I provide in chapters 9 and 11 in the book: The Rise of AI User Applications: Chatbots Integration Foundations and Trends https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-56471-0
European Central Bank | TechAcademy e.V.
4 个月Thank you, Stefan Stremersch, for discussing our article. I'd say yes, we can use Generative AI to enhance the learning experience — one example being through our feedback app. But we cannot outsource learning per se. Students still need to put the initial work into understanding a subject. Generative AI tools can then help accelerating this learning process.
Thank you, Stefan Stremersch, for highlighting our work, now available as an open-access publication: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167811624000430 There is little doubt that Generative AI will have a strong impact on how we educate students. Lukas Jürgensmeier and I outline that Generative AI can help to provide additional feedback to students and, therefore, enhance their learning experience. This additional feedback can complement our teaching efforts, allowing us to address topics that often remain uncovered due to insufficient student progress (e.g. because they do not receive enough feedback). Certainly, Generative AI might also help to grade assignments, which might save time. However, if we want to save time when grading exams, then I recommend using multiple-choice and similar questions. We have known for decades that we can score these types of questions (almost) automatically. The core idea of our article was to underline that Generative AI can enhance the students‘ learning experience.
Investor
4 个月Fascinating research, definitely a thought-provoking concept to consider for the future of education. How about we connect? Feel free to send me an invitation.