HAL: Let me put it this way, Mr. Amor. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.
HAL: I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.
If you are a fan of the film “2001: A Space Oddity” you recognize the above quotes. If you are not, in short so as not to give spoilers, HAL is an AI computer built to help with the mission but ends up having problems.
AI is the new panacea, at least according to some. Personally, I view it as yet another tool, like the calculator, slide rule, projector, etc. As I tell my students, a tool is only as good as the person using it. To that end, I wanted to open a discussion about how I use it in my classroom.
As with everything computer related, the suggestions that follow will likely become outdated soon. So take these suggestions as a good starting point for how to use these tools in class.
One way I use it is to give students the question and answer from an AI (I tend to use ChatGPT as it’s the most well known) and have the students critique the answer. This can be either as a group exercise and an individual quiz. Some examples:
How many intercepts does a horizontal line have?
ChatGPT
A horizontal line has no x-intercepts and has one y-intercept.
The x-intercept is the point where the line crosses the x-axis, and for a horizontal line, it never crosses the x-axis. The y-intercept is the point where the line crosses the y-axis, and for a horizontal line, it crosses the y-axis at a single point. The equation of a horizontal line is of the form y = constant, where "constant" represents the y-coordinate of the y-intercept.
When I use this in a group setting, after letting the discussion go for a few minutes, I then walk to the board and write “y=0” and let the discussion start again.
I also do this when we hit volumes of revolution in Calculus 2:
You will notice of course that while the answer sounds good at first glance, there is a mixing of methods here, and that is not the correct answer. This is a good exercise for the students, as most of mine admit they tend to never check over their work.
A follow up question that I have used is “So what revolution question would this be an answer for?”. Many of my students afterwards tell me this going backwards idea was helpful for them to sort out what is really important when we do volumes of revolution.
Another way to use AI is to ask it to answer a question, but intentionally introduce some mistakes. Then have the students grade the answer, finding and fixing the mistakes. For example, for my pre-calculus class I asked ChatGPT “Solve the equation but introduce two mistakes. It produced a solution and identified where it was introducing the mistakes. I can then copy over the solution and ask my students to find and fix the mistakes.
These are the two main ways I use AI in my classes. There are other ways, such as asking for several different versions of a slope question for exam versions. I have not had as much success personally with that approach, but some of my colleagues have.
Students and AI
To head off students using AI to cheat, one solution is to ask non-standard questions, like so called “clicker-questions.” This works better in the higher level classes, as almost anything below calculus, even word problems, ChatGPT is pretty good at solving. Suggestions in addition to the clicker questions would include questions from the Openmiddle website.
In addition to an AI policy my college has adopted, I take a few minutes to discuss how using AI to quickly solve homework is only hurting themselves, as they won’t get such tools on the exams. This seems to cut down on the number of my students who have amazing homework scores and very low exam scores.
To sum up, AI is a very interesting tool. It can do many things, and will make our job harder, no doubt. We as faculty will have to work to find questions that assess our students understanding of the material, not their computer typing skills. So reach out to your fellow colleagues, and work together to write questions that are a little more unusual and will challenge our students. We can then use these in addition to the basic skills questions to really try and assess how our students are doing. Good luck!