Students in a college classroom. April 19, 2018. Photo Credit: Kenny Eliason
Students at Kennesaw State University are going to school at a unique period in time, as AI continues to make headlines and be used more and more in educational settings.
“I’ve seen professors use and admit to using ChatGPT for the sake of organizing a bunch of data for assignments,” said a KSU student majoring in Media and Entertainment. “I was surprised by that because I feel like using ChatGPT is heavily discouraged by my other professors.”
Students using ChatGPT are seeing more pushback from professors than ever before, specifically in the form of AI checkers like Turnitin.
“I turned in a paper that I worked really hard on for a class, and then my professor accused me of using AI for it,” said Gavin Stokes, a KSU student majoring in Journalism. “It made me really upset to have my work be completely dismissed just because an AI checking program messed up.”
Not all professors are as aggressively anti-AI as others.
“When I read my syllabus on the first day of class, I was surprised to see that the professor actually allowed us to use AI,” said a KSU student majoring in Business. “He said he’s okay with us using it as long as we don’t use it to plagiarize.”
While many individual professors forbid the use of AI in their classrooms, KSU’s official stance is that AI can be used as long as it does not compromise academic integrity and that students and professors are transparent about using it, according to their website.
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how we learn and work. At KSU, we’re committed to harnessing AI to improve Owls’ academic and administrative experiences while prioritizing ethics and data security at every step.” says the KSU website’s section on AI.
Some students believe that AI should never be allowed into the classroom, either by the professor or by students.
“We’re in college, so that means we need to be gaining the skills necessary to do our jobs,” said a KSU student majoring in English. “Relying on AI means that we won’t be prepared to do what our degrees says we can do.”
Other students believe AI is an inevitability and should be allowed in the classrooms.
“Whether we like it or not, AI is gonna be involved in our career fields in one way or another,” said a KSU student majoring in Sociology. “It’s more wise to learn how to work with it rather than demonize it entirely.”
Some students are exhausted about the topic of AI as a whole.
“It’s just a mess and I’m tired of everyone talking about it all the time,” said a KSU student majoring in Engineering. “School is hard enough without having to bear the weight of the ethics of AI on us everyday.”
