It can’t be business as usual in education

THE EDITOR, Madam:

As educators, we tell students to credit their sources and provide references for works cited, and a bibliography for works read in preparation for their assignments. Students may use direct quotations and/or write what they understand from what they have read. Students read for a degree. The advent of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google Bard and others has forced educators to rethink education and assessment. It cannot be business as usual. How can educators discuss and analyse something that they are unfamiliar with? It is just not possible. There is an urgent need for educators to face the fact that we are not dealing with the same technologies that we had at the beginning of the last school year.The world changed in November 2022, when ChatGPT was released.

The LLMs should be introduced in the teaching-learning process. Students and teachers should explore topics using appropriate prompts and compare the output of the LLMs, depending on the prompts given. Prompt engineering and prompt chaining are new skills that both teachers and students can explore as they navigate these uncharted waters.

When I provide the prompts and work with the LLMs to revise, edit, and reorganise my work, whose work is it? Should I be required to submit the prompts and the LLM used? Should my prompt engineering skills be evaluated, as well as the final draft produced?

It is time for educators to realise that things will never be the same again. It is time to change how and what is assessed. It is no longer enough to produce correct answers. Asking the right questions is just as important as providing correct answers. Let us see how the educators handle this.

WINNE ANDERSON-BROWN