Wednesday Research Seminar Series - If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’: using ChatGPT to teach international students about academic integrity using critical thinking skills

Abstract

When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, it initiated a maelstrom of responses from academics the world over. From a simple prompt, the user can pose any question to which the Generative Pre-trained Transformer will produce the required response. Negative feedback on the AI from academia highlighted how students can use it for plagiarism, generating answers to essay style questions that, until very recently, went undetected by plagiarism software. The launch of the AI user interface sparked a fervour of research articles ranging from discussions of concerns over ChatGPT’s reliability and trustworthiness, to those offering universities and schools advice on how to tackle ChatGPT’s popularity amongst the student body. Suggestions have largely concentrated on tightening academic integrity regulations, educating students about plagiarism, returning to written exams or the submission of written drafts, making assignment instructions clearer or writing reflective or critical thinking papers to avoid the use of AI (Cotton et al., 2023). Plagiarism software like Turnitin has since been updated to include AI detection, and websites that can spot ChatGPT use, like Zero GPT, have also arisen. Nevertheless, what underpins the multiple and varied responses to the Large Language Model (LLM), is not only concern about student academic integrity, but also that the debate has called into question pedagogical integrity in terms of meeting the needs of students. Whilst academics raise concerns over the ability to adequately test learning outcomes, this in turn has elicited uncertainty around assessment practices themselves and whether an AI revolution calls for a rethink of the way student learning is evaluated (Stokel-Walker, 2022; Adeshola and Adepoju, 2023). Earlier educational experiences of international students studying in the Middle East, have often centred around teacher-led paradigms where repetitive strategies are employed. For International students entering the student-led British education system, the development of higher level and critical thinking skills becomes crucial. This paper argues that rather than adopting a ‘call to arms’ approach to ChatGPT, educators in the Middle East should capitalise on the AI’s fallibilities to teach international students critical thinking skills. This paper will present an example of an assessment using ChatGPT given to International Foundation students in a British University in Dubai, that seeks to engage international students with issues of academic integrity and the trustworthiness of information

Presenter Bio

Dr Louise Edensor SFHEA is Head of Foundation Programme and Pre-Sessional Programmes at Middlesex University, Dubai . She holds a PhD and MA in Literature, a BA Honours (First Class) in Humanities with Literature, and a BA Honours in Business Administration, along with an ILM Certificate in Supervisory Management. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Louise’s teaching interests include Creative Writing, Academic Advising and the supervision of Master’s degree Education dissertations. Her research interests include periodical culture of the modernist period, the Writings of Katherine Mansfield, Foundation studies and Academic Advising.

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