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On Friday, January 20, 2023 Dr. Trey Conatser, director of the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, was interviewed about the emergence of ChatGPT and its potential impact on higher education by a local WVLK radio station. 

In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT or (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer), an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot capable of interacting with textual input in a dialogic manner. In other words, users can input questions and directives and receive text output from the bot matching those requests. ChatGPT is a large language model which means it is programmed to predict what word comes next in a sentence through the use of massive amounts of data. The results can be coherent sentences, paragraphs, and even pages of texts.

The functionality of this technology currently free to access for all users means that instructors are considering how to approach potential for student use of ChatGPT. Reactions to the technology’s implications on the college classroom vary and include concern about academic integrity or an eagerness to use it as a starting point or tool. 

When asked about his experience with the technology and its impact on classrooms so far, Trey stated that “what we are doing right now is trying to figure out what meaningful writing assignments are in the post-pandemic university and what we want our students to do with writing.” Indicating the opportunity for reimagining writing assignments and their impact on students, Trey suggested that the arrival of this tool in new realms like higher education “is a prompt to meditate on and innovate how and why we teach writing, and maybe come to a point of clarity that perhaps we didn't’ have before about how we can make it meaningful for students in a way that is new and refreshing for us as instructors.” You can hear Trey’s complete interview here by clicking on the 1-20-23 podcast (timestamp 19:40).

This technology, its availability, and its capabilities are constantly changing and its implications on student work and teaching vary widely depending on discipline, teaching style, assignment design, and other factors. Instructors looking to discuss ChatGPT in the context of their own teaching should contact CELT to schedule a free teaching consultation. Click here to contact us.

Some Suggested Readings:

Beth McMurtie, “Will ChatGPT Change the Way You Teach?Chronicle of Higher Education (January 15, 2023).

Christopher Grobe, “Why I’m Not Scared of ChatGPTChronicle of Higher Education (January 18, 2023).

Cynthia Alby, “ChatGPT: A Must-See Before the Semester Begins” Faculty Focus (January 9, 2023).