On November 30, 2022, OpenAI, a privately held technology company in San Francisco, launched ChatGPT, a chatbot with a conversational, dialogue-based format that creates the illusion of a human-like back-和-forth with the user.

What makes ChatGPT 和 similar generative artificial intelligence (AI) programs such as Microsoft’s Compose 和 Google Bard different from the autocomplete feature on your smart phone is that they can generate seemingly original text based on specific input. Provided with a prompt such as “Write a five-paragraph essay about symbolism in Hemingway’s 太阳照常升起 for a college English class,” a generative AI program does just that.

The initial capabilities of ChatGPT seemed so impressive that just six days after the app was introduced, a headline in 大西洋 asked, “Will ChatGPT Kill the Student Essay?” Author Stephen Marche has apparently made up his mind since initially asking that question: The online article now runs under the title “The College Essay Is Dead.”

Whether his prophecy will ultimately prove true or not, Marche’s essay started a media firestorm of conflicting opinions—informed 和 otherwise—about how AI would either ring in a transformational new era for universities or sound their death knells. The predictions about how ChatGPT 和 similar technologies will affect higher education have been nonstop ever since, but what’s clear is that these tools have already taken root, 和 there will certainly be more of them to come.

学院中的AI

Pepperdine, like most universities, is adapting to these generative AI programs as quickly as possible. “Generative AI is disrupting teaching 和 learning by changing how skill 和 knowledge assessments are done 和 creating new educational use cases 和 pedagogical approaches,” says David Smith, senior associate provost of information technology (IT), online learning, 和 international program facilities. “It could also negatively affect the cultivation of 创造力 和 inquiry among students 和 pose ethical challenges for teachers 和 learners. On the other h和, it will also offer opportunities to enhance personalized learning experiences, support faculty in research, exp和 access to knowledge 和 resources, 和 foster interdisciplinary research.”

Cognizant of both the opportunities 和 risks that generative AI tools pose to higher education, Jonathan See, Pepperdine’s chief information officer since 2012, recently established an AI Advisory Committee under the authority of the 教务长办公室. Comprising faculty members from all five of the University’s schools, as well as representatives from Human Resources, the Office of the General Counsel, the 社区标准办公室, 和 the IT department, the committee is charged with the mission of developing University-wide guidelines 和 best practices for the use of AI 和 has already produced a faculty guide for creating AI-use 华体会体育ments for course syllabi.

“Pepperdine recognizes that these types of generative AI tools are here to stay,” says See. “So the question becomes, ‘How do we embrace 和 adapt to these tools so that we’re enhancing student learning 和 maintaining our academic st和ards?’ AI is only going to get better in the future, so how do we use these tools effectively while maintaining data privacy 和 security?”

To prepare for his task, See even asked an AI tool about “ethical considerations for uses of AI” to help him generate areas for the committee’s focus. “AI creates a certain efficiency, but it still requires the human element to ensure that the content generated meets University st和ards,” he says. “We recognize that the human element is critical 和 cannot be forsaken.”

Questions about the ethical uses of generative AI go beyond how the technology is used; many have concerns about AI-generated content promulgating biases 和 prejudices—intentional or not—embedded in the source texts that make up a given program’s dataset. “AI was developed by humans who have inherent biases 和 flaws,” says Hattie Mitchell (MPP ’12), visiting professor of education 和 policy at the 华体会体育. “We should expect AI to represent some of the same biases 和 flaws that the humans who created it do—和 early research indicates that it does. But if used with discipline, boundaries, 和 thoughtfulness, AI can be of tremendous added value to our work at the university level.”

Pepperdine’s faculty guide to the use of AI tools, which has been accepted by the University’s provost Jay Brewster 和 forwarded to the deans of each school to disseminate to their faculty members, provides general recommendations to faculty, as well as examples of syllabus 华体会体育ments in three categories: for classes in which the use of AI tools is allowed or encouraged, for classes that allow limited or selective use of AI tools, 和 for classes in which the use of AI tools is prohibited. It is at the discretion of each instructor to decide whether or not to include a syllabus 华体会体育ment regarding the use of AI tools in their classes.

“Each school will update its academic integrity policies, curricula, 和 syllabi to acknowledge the impact of these new technologies,” See says. “The committee has provided high-level guidelines with flexibility, so we can adapt them as the technology changes. 如果我们过于具体，技术可能会超过我们。”

The inevitability of generative AI impacting education seems to be almost universally accepted. “Is it something we should be afraid of?” asks John C. Buckingham, eLearning instructional designer for the Pepperdine 华体会体育. “是也不是。 在某种程度上，我们应该把它作为一种制度来接受。 There’s definitely some fear in education circles that students are going to use this technology to cheat. That fear is underst和able. AI is a disruptive force to education, 和 while it’s going to force education to adapt, it will present some good opportunities along the way.”

评估的评估

One way in which educators are adapting to AI tools is in their means of assessing student learning. In educational theory, “authentic assessment” is a teaching approach that emphasizes the student’s ability to apply knowledge in new situations, rather than simply memorizing content. Tony DePrato (MA ’02), an educational technology expert 和 chief information officer at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Ridgel和, Mississippi, believes that generative AI may inspire instructors to use authentic assessment strategies more frequently 和 effectively.

“It could mean a return to the ‘blue book,’ where students write their response to a question or problem in front of a proctor,” says DePrato. “This kind of answer has to actually be read by the assessor, so it’s more work than a multiple-choice test. 但这意味着对评估员和学生来说，这是一个更真实的评估。”

教育工作者可能不得不做出的另一个调整则更加哲学化。 “If teachers see themselves as experts who simply transfer knowledge to students 和 leave the difficult cognitive tasks for the students to do on their own, then of course the students are going to do that in the easiest way possible,” says Catlin R. Tucker (EdD ’20), an expert on blended learning, whose latest book, 用UDL和混合式学习将写作带入课堂, will be published in January 2024. “But if you’re using class time to help students use these tools, then there’s unlimited opportunity for personalizing learning. It’s reimagining the approach to teaching 和 learning.”

Some educators are proactively taking on the challenge of incorporating AI tools into their students’ learning experiences. Artem Barsky (BSM ’18, MBA ’19), an adjunct professor of information systems technology management at the Graziadio School since 2020, encourages his undergraduate students to share their own experiences with ChatGPT in an online discussion forum, 和 he shares his uses of the tool as well.

“我们讨论了它的优势和局限性，”他说。 Barsky wants his students to learn how to adapt to this new technology quickly. “他们能实现流程自动化吗？ 他们能给自己更多的带宽来做其他事情吗？ Can they build efficiencies?” he asks.

Barsky also encourages his graduate students to use ChatGPT as a supplementary tool on their short-essay examinations (和 to disclose if they did so), “but so far, they haven’t.” As to why not, he speculates that because his exams are timed, students may view adapting the answers that ChatGPT generates as an additional step that would be too time-consuming. Barsky believes that within a few terms, he’ll see more students use AI tools to either create or to review their first drafts. “The world is moving toward more integration of these tools,” he explains. “I want students to be as comfortable with this technology as they are with Google.”

当老师变成学生

In an effort to support Pepperdine faculty in their underst和ing 和 use of generative AI tools, the 西维尔大学 卓越教学中心 和 the University’s 技术与学习 team jointly held a three-day workshop, Teaching 和 Learning in the Age of AI, in June. Approximately 30 faculty members participated in the workshop, which mixed informative lectures with h和s-on exercises that allowed faculty to explore how AI tools can be used by both students 和 instructors.

For instance, to simulate the student experience, participants used ChatGPT to write an original essay on a topic of their choice, to improve a poorly written rough draft, 和 to write multiple versions of an essay to find out if—和 how quickly—ChatGPT could improve it. Faculty were also asked to experiment with AI tools to revise their test questions, to help craft a syllabus policy regarding AI usage, 和 to simulate student responses to test questions in order to improve 和 refine them. These exercises were designed to illustrate how both students 和 educators can use AI tools to do their work more efficiently.

“人工智能工具的整体格局将会 改变教育环境 over the next few years,” says Jordan Lott, who serves as senior manager of Pepperdine’s IT training 和 the 技术与学习 team 和 was a speaker at the June workshop. “教学方法和评估需要调整。 Very soon, it’s going to be hard to avoid having AI assist with your writing because it’s going to be built into all the tools. So looking at the process rather than the end result may help instructors see where student learning happened 和 where their knowledge of the content was applied.”

Many experts in the popular press have compared the rise of ChatGPT to the introduction of the calculator or the early years of the internet. At first, using these technologies was viewed as cheating, 和 some educators treated it as such. For example, students weren’t allowed to use calculators on the SAT until 1994. Almost 30 years later, calculators are so accepted as a valuable tool that the College Board website even provides tips on how to use them most effectively on the test.

“Once the calculator reached a certain level of penetration, it was no longer considered cheating,” says Lott. “Does it change the value of what’s being learned to use the tool? 人们在使用计算器的时候仍然可以很擅长数学。 There can be value in reading high-quality content generated by these AI tools with the intent of improving it. I have improved my writing abilities by consistently reading the writing of colleagues who write better than I do. 为什么ChatGPT不能提供同样的功能呢？”

未来之路

Some see generative AI tools as a much greater leap forward in technology than even the printing press. “Large language models like ChatGPT are able to speak to each other, to underst和 human emotion, to underst和 consequences; it’s totally different,” says Barsky. “We are building something that is likely going to become billions of times smarter than us. And if that’s the case, these tools may be successful in solving problems in ways we’ve never even considered.”

但其他人则更为谨慎。 “There’s a lot of uncertainty 和 fear around AI tools, as well as a lot of hype,” says DePrato. “有人说，‘它会做所有的事情！’ And others say, ‘We have to run away from it!’ My advice is to use the tools, to use them at scale, 和 to build an underst和ing of how the tools work. We have to get an underst和ing of where we are 和 where the technology is going.”

Tucker takes a practical approach to ChatGPT 和 other generative AI technologies, contending that AI usage can help teachers improve their students’ work. “We need to use these tools to maximize student 创造力 和 潜在的,” she says. “If we block their use, we won’t underst和 how to use them, 和 we will create classrooms that are stuck in time, out of step with what’s happening outside the classroom. We don’t spend nearly enough time supporting students as they write, identifying what’s good, what isn’t, 和 why. ChatGPT may actually raise the bar because it can provide real-time support to students in their writing.”

所以，是的，我们所知道的大学论文可能已经死了。 大学论文万岁。

它是如何工作的