Chat GPT in Higher Ed: Let's Start the Conversation
Over the coming months, you’ll encounter posts about Chat GPT here, since it is a hot topic. Unesco recently published Chat GPT and Artificial Intelligence in higher education: Quick start guide in April. It's a good way to start our conversation and get up to speed on the basics (especially if you don't even know where to find it or how to start). Let’s highlight a few ideas here:
Definition:
It’s clever that UNESCO asked ChatGPT to explain itself in 50 words as a starter:
ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI, based on the GPT-3.5 architecture. It can generate human-like text based on input prompts, answer questions, and perform a variety of natural language processing tasks. It was trained on a massive dataset of internet text to learn patterns and relationships in language (p. 5).
Suggestions for producing relevant results:
Tell me how [add query] works in 50 words.
Behave as/Act as a higher education manager. [Add query]
Write a four-paragraph essay about [add query]
Important considerations to know:
Data used to train ChatGPT’s responses goes up to 2021. This means it has no knowledge of things that have happened since (some browsers that integrate Chat GPT do enable it to connect to recent information).
Due to high demand, the free version may be unavailable or run really slowly.
Applications of ChatGPT in higher education:
In addition to a summary of possible uses of ChatGPT in the research process, UNESCO has combined contributions of M. Sharples and R. Knust Graichen into a handy chart of tasks that ChatGPT can perform to enhance teaching and learning:
(p. 9)
When you consider the applications for teaching and learning presented in the chart, do any surprise you or stick out as something you’d want to explore?
Let’s start the conversation about ChatGPT as a tool we’d like to explore more in teaching and learning. Leave a comment to let us know your thoughts.