Students in Sweden are positive towards AI tools such as ChatGPT in education although they draw the line when it comes to using technology to directly improve grades. Here, 62 percent of students believe that using chatbots during exams is cheating.
This said, research also indicates that understanding where the boundary for cheating lies remains highly unclear. This is shown in a survey from Chalmers University of Technology, which is the first large-scale study in Europe to investigate students’ attitudes towards artificial intelligence in higher education. The study is titled “Chatbots and other AI for learning: A survey on use and views among university students in Sweden”. In total, the survey was answered by 5,894 students.
Some of the statements made by students when questioned demonstrate the level of ambiguity:
“I am afraid of AI and what it could mean for the future.”
“Don’t worry so much! Keep up with the development and adapt your teaching for the future.”
“ChatGPT and similar tools will revolutionise how we learn, and we will be able to come up with amazing things.”
These are three out of nearly two thousand optional comments from the survey which almost 6,000 students in Sweden recently participated in.
“The students express strong, diverse, and in many cases emotionally charged opinions,” says Hans Malmström, Professor at the Department of Communication and Learning in Science at Chalmers University of technology. Malmström, together with Christian Stöhr and Amy Wanyu Ou, conducted the study.
More than a third use ChatGPT regularly
ChatGPT is growing in popularity among students. A majority of the respondents said they believe that chatbots and AI language tools make them more efficient as students and argue that such tools improve their academic writing and overall language skills.
Virtually all the responding students polled were familiar with ChatGPT, the majority use the tool, and 35 percent use the chatbot regularly
Lack guidance – opposed a ban
Despite their positive attitude towards AI, many students feel anxious and lack clear guidance on how to use AI in the learning environments they are in. It is simply difficult to know where the boundary for cheating lies.
No replacement for critical thinking
Many students perceive chatbots as a mentor or teacher that they can ask questions or get help from, for example, with explanations of concepts and summaries of ideas. The dominant attitude is that chatbots should be used as an aid, not replace students’ own critical thinking. Or as one student put it: “You should be able to do the same things as the AI, but it should help you do it. You should not use a calculator if you don’t know what the plus sign on it does”.
Aid in case of disabilities?
Another important aspect that emerged in the survey was that AI serves as an effective aid for people with various disabilities. A student with ADD and dyslexia described how they had spent 20 minutes writing down their answer in the survey and then improved it by inputting the text into ChatGPT.
