The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 14th that Ella Stapleton, a fourth-year student at Northeastern University, discovered a lecture note made of AI in a management class and asked the university to refund the subject.
In February, Stapleton was reviewing his lecture notes when he found out, “Expand all areas, write more detailed and specific.” This is the point where the professor is believed to have instructed ChatGPT to write lecture notes. Stapleton, who also looked closely at other lecture materials, found errors that are common when creating materials with ChatGPT, such as distortions and typos in pictures.
The subject was a mandatory subject in Stapleton’s minor, business administration, but the lecture plan stated that “it prohibits academic dishonest behavior, including the unauthorized use of AI or chatbots.” Stapleton criticized, “[Professor] tells us not to use AI, but he is actually using it.”
Stapleton formally raised the issue with Northeastern Business School and demanded a $8000 tuition refund. This was a quarter of the semester’s tuition. After filing the complaint, he had several interviews with university officials, but the day after the graduation ceremony, he received a reply that the tuition fee could not be refunded.
Marie, a student at the University of New Hampshire, submitted a three-page essay to an online anthropology class last fall semester and received an A grade. However, she found a conversation with ChatGPT, which was accidentally uploaded by the professor, in the comments section of the school’s online platform. Not only did the professor ask ChatGPT to set a scoring standard, but he also asked for feedback for Marie. Marie claimed that it was like the professor hadn’t read her essay. He eventually moved on.
College students not only take issue with the hypocritical attitude of “no students, no professors” when it comes to using AI, but also argue that tuition is a waste. It is said that college students pay a considerable tuition fee and take classes to receive human instruction, not algorithms that they can receive answers for free.
Recently, U.S. lecture evaluation sites frequently receive complaints that “professors rely too much on ChatGPT,” and students are carefully examining whether words such as “critical” or “exploring” that ChatGPT overuse appear in lecture materials, the New York Times reported.
On the other hand, professors argued that AI only plays a similar role to teaching assistant. They say that AI can be used as a tool for better education because it saves time and helps to handle heavy workload. They also argued that they can interact more with students during the time when they make boring lecture material introductions.
The use of AI in college districts is on the rise. According to a survey of 1,800 U.S. higher education instructors conducted by consulting firm Tyton Partners last year, 18 percent of the respondents said they frequently use generative AI tools. The number of respondents who answered the same question in this year’s survey doubled.
EJ SONG
US ASIA JOURNAL
