The Future of Education

Since the release of Chat GPT 3.5 into the public domain, there has been much interest in the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in an assessment context (Chambers, 2022; Aloisi, 2023; Bowman, 2022). Our study builds on existing research to explore the risks and opportunities presented by AI for essay-based coursework assessments (Christodoulou, 2023; Dale, 2021; Pavlik, 2023). Our research is novel because it explores how students employ the technology to assist their coursework assessments. Three students aged 18-22 were tasked with writing two essays each for a coursework component for a Cambridge International General Certificate of Education (IGCSE) qualification. The students were given access to ChatGPT plus, which facilitated access to versions 3.5 and 4. After writing the essays, the students participated in semi-structured interviews about their experiences of using the technology. Researchers also compared the transcript of the dialogue between the students and the AI to gain further insight into the students’ use of the technology. Did they, for example, copy and paste information, cross-check ChatGPT’s claims with other sources, use the ChatGPT outputs as ‘springboard’ for their own ideas, or simply reword the AI responses? The six ChatGPT-assisted essays were seeded into a marking batch (n = 170) for experienced examiners of the assessment. The marks awarded to the Chat-GPT-informed essays were compared to those authored by candidates working without generative AI assistance. The findings provide information about how ChatGPT-informed essays perform in an assessment context. Additionally, the research contributes to an understanding of the strengths and limitations of this technology, and crucially, it can inform guidance on how to use and reference generative AI appropriately. Finally, our research informs a wider question about the future of assessment and whether with the new capabilities of AI, our assessment objectives remain robust and relevant to today’s learners.