Over half of students use generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool whilst studying to help them with their learning and assessment.
The Student carried out a survey of University of Edinburgh students’ experiences of using generative AI whilst studying.
The results reveal that, whilst AI use is common, students want university tutors to educate them on how it can be used responsibly to help with their studies.
However, when asked to identify specifically how they use generative AI to help them at university, students’ responses suggest they don’t use AI to help with certain aspects of their learning.
44 per cent of students surveyed said they never use AI to help them generate ideas for an essay or other summative assessment.
68 per cent of students also said they never use AI to gather sources for an essay.
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Additionally, 64 per cent of students said they never use AI to get feedback on their academic writing style.
Students’ reluctance to use AI as a tool in these areas may be due to how reliable they believe data generated by AI is.
80 per cent of students said they believe content and analysis produced by AI is not that trustworthy.
Survey responses also suggest that the students surveyed don’t use AI to support certain aspects of their learning because they have not been trained on how to use AI responsibly.
As such, 52 per cent of students surveyed agreed that degree programme tutors should teach how AI can be used as a tool to support learning.
One student said: “I haven’t used AI to write assessments but one person in my year did last year to write an essay and they got caught.
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“I feel like people are going to use it no matter what. It’s here to stay so we should be learning how it can help us instead.”
Another said: “For me it’s no different than paying for a tutor if you use it responsibly.
“It can look over your essay and show where you can improve it, where your arguments maybe don’t make sense, or you could have used better vocabulary or there are mistakes in your references.”
The lack of student agreement on the purpose and usefulness of AI suggests a need for teacher support on the matter.
56 per cent of students agreed that university tutors should encourage students to use AI to improve their understanding of theories and concepts discussed in academic work.
However, 80 per cent disagreed that university tutors should encourage students to use AI to help generate ideas for assessment or encourage students to use AI to gather relevant sources.
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One student said: “I don’t find generative AI very helpful. I’ve had it completely make up quotes and sources. Its points are generally not fully developed but I do see that it’s improving very quickly.”
Students could be supported on identifying what is responsible AI use by being trained on which tasks AI is useful for.
One student suggested that AI tools are useful for improving academic writing and summarising information that a user has already verified is reliable.
This student said: “The way I usually use ChatGPT is I do all the research and argument building myself, write a rough draft and then get ChatGPT to word it better.”
“So, I can verify the facts because it’s all facts I’ve found myself already.”
As AI is growing more and more popular, survey data suggests a framework for responsible AI use must be established by educators today.
Read more: HCA Department offers advice on use of ChatGPT
This year, the Russell Group of universities published new guidance recommending that students and staff are trained to become AI literate.
This guidance recognises the growing need for university staff to be given support in teaching students how to use AI tools responsibly, whilst ensuring ethical considerations of academic integrity are maintained.
The University of Edinburgh is a member of the Russell Group, and as such has issued their own guidance on AI use.
The University’s guidance states that whilst it does not want to ban the use of generative AI, it encourages students to be mindful of checking how reliable data generated by AI is.
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