MrSpotgold OP t1_j4rqx4q wrote on January 17, 2023 at 8:24 PM

Reply to comment by BrotherAmazing in [D] Can ChatGPT flag it's own writings? by MrSpotgold

This software is a nightmare for anyone in the teaching business (whether secondary school or higher education) where assessments is based on essays. I'm not kidding: a nightmare. We are going to bring up kids who will not be able write a comprehensive text simply because we lack the means to check that they wrote it themselves, and therefore we must abandon the assessment method altogether. It's that bad.

BrotherAmazing t1_j4tdklr wrote on January 18, 2023 at 2:56 AM

No it’s not.

Anyone who wanted to cheat on a take-home essay or assignment always could, and anyone who has to write an essay in-class monitored for more critical and competitive standardized tests cannot be pulling out their devices and typing into chatGPT, which doesn’t write A+ essays that a teacher can’t detect are “a little off” anyway.

As a former educator myself, I always knew which students had mastered the material and could intelligently talk about it in class discussions, during office hours, and through in-class essays/quizzes where they could not cheat while I closely monitored. They couldn’t get an A+ by simply cheating on a few of the take-home essays, and the typical cheaters are cheating just to get by and still end up with inferior grades to those who master the subject.

Furthermore, concentrating too much on catching cheaters takes away from time you could be spending enriching the learning experience of everyone else.

It also sounds corny but is true: When you cheat, you’re only cheating yourself. Cheating really is self-policing in many instances. When we interview candidates who have a degree and a high GPA, it’s very obvious of they just got good grades but are clueless and we don’t hire them. It might be cheating, or maybe grade inflation, or perhaps just short-term memorizing but not actually retaining or understanding what they were learning, but it’s night and day.

Those who truly care to learn will excel in their jobs and get better promotions. ChatGPT isn’t going to help you there.

Having said that, I would consider possibly modifying the curriculum you only give take-home work that is 90% of the grade and can, but it’s not worth stressing over. Put your effort into teaching and enriching the lives of those who want to learn and yearn for knowledge. You’re an educator first, and police work is just a side gig you can’t ignore, but isn’t your main purpose.

MrSpotgold OP t1_j4umjvh wrote on January 18, 2023 at 11:06 AM

ChatGPT is beyond cheating. We have to go on the default that it is applied in essay writing. And surely you agree that it is pointless to assess the output of a machine. Therefore, essay writing will cease to be a method of assessment, and consequently, whichever way you look at it, future students will no longer learn to write.

BrotherAmazing t1_j4v2gm8 wrote on January 18, 2023 at 1:44 PM

First, I’m blown away that you are suggesting that you don’t know your students and their writing styles, some of which are performed in-class and almost all of which differ significantly from the way ChatGPT writes, but second, my teachers said the exact same thing you are saying decades ago and freaked out when CliffsNotes came out!

Re-read my prior argument because nothing you just said impacts it, and it still stands.

MrSpotgold OP t1_j5148cv wrote on January 19, 2023 at 5:50 PM

I appreciate your comments. We don't have to agree. Moreover, I could be wrong.