The effect of growing artificial intelligence usage on education

Okan Bulut, a professor in the faculty of education at the University of Alberta, has been examining the effect of artificial intelligence (AI) on education. AI has become more prominent in recent years and Bulut has analyzed the changes it’s bringing to students and educators. 

According to Bulut, the general population’s perception of AI has changed over time. AI was not always seen favourably, he said.

“When it first came out, it was seen more like a nuisance,” Bulut said. Bulut explained that educators initially viewed AI as an interruption to the learning environment. However, in recent times, AI has been received more positively.

“AI is still in its infancy, so we are in the process of understanding how AI will help us. People’s views are changing. We now see the capabilities of AI and all those generative AI tools for helping educators,” Bulut said. 

Educators have had to adapt to student use of AI, Bulut says

While AI tools can be useful, Bulut said that educators have had to adapt to the use of it in their classrooms.

“The most obvious example would be the way that we are designing assessments. We are moving away from factual, or directly knowledge-based exercises. You can Google them, even ask ChatGPT to come up with an answer,” Bulut said. 

Due to this, educators have moved towards exercises of application of knowledge or interpretation. Bulut said he thinks that this change is a positive one, and that it supports a higher level of understanding in course materials. 

Despite the possible benefits of AI, Bulut said that reaching a common level of AI literacy does pose a challenge for its widespread use. According to Bulut, this can cause some discrepancies in how educators view AI as a possible tool.

“I can use these tools to my advantage, whereas another colleague from a different program, a different faculty, could just see it as a potential cheating tool,” Bulut said. 

AI can be a “very good learning tool” when students use own knowledge, Bulut says

According to Bulut, incidents where students use AI tools to cheat or copy and paste work will always happen. This does cause some concern among instructors about the quality of education students are receiving, he said.

“Yes, I’m bothered that somebody could just attempt to cheat. But at the same time, from an instructor’s point of view, it’s not good because the person didn’t learn, or didn’t even show how much they learned,” Bulut said. 

While incidents of cheating are always going to occur, Bulut thinks that AI can still be a useful tool for students, provided they use those tools effectively. 

“AI still requires a strong level of knowledge and a clear input. So, students can rely on their own knowledge first to benefit from it,” Bulut said. “If you start with your knowledge, and if you start building on that by prompting, and by asking the right questions, you can get the right answers. I think that’s a very good learning tool.”

Additionally, Bulut emphasized the need to implement clear rules. He feels that instructors at the U of A should have a policy about generative AI use in their classrooms. 

“I can say that my students are welcome to use AI, and they need to acknowledge that. Or, I can say that my students are not allowed to use it and they must follow those rules,” Bulut said. 

New discussions surrounding AI may bring some more insight 

Bulut has recently received research funding to assess how AI is jeopardizing assessments in higher education. He’ll be working with professors from multiple countries to analyze what AI tools can be used for, and how they might be jeopardizing the security of their assessments. 

The project will start up in February. Bulut hopes to have some findings and insight to share after 12–18 months. 

While there are challenges, Bulut said he remains positive that AI can become a useful tool in education.

“We are hoping to build the future of education by creating better assessments, better pedagogical tools, better content, and making things more personalized for every student to meet their needs better.”