Artificial intelligence has become more popular on the UTRGV campus since November of last year, when the ChatGPT chatbot technology was released.
Now, several UTRGV departments are creating guidelines for courses that will be using AI and those that will not, university officials say.
“COLTT, Faculty Senate and others are working on developing a template for the syllabus for faculty who are going to be integrating AI into the courses or for faculty who don’t want the students to use AI,” said Francisco Garcia, director of the Center for Online Learning and Teaching Technology. “The statements are expected to be ready by the first day of classes.”
He said the main goal of COLTT is students’ success, preparing courses and providing an excellent learning experience for students.
“AI is something that is relatively new and that, you know, the world of academia is now facing and all indications are showing that is not going anywhere and it will probably get more and more part of our society,” said Melba Latu, director of Student Rights and Responsibilities.
English Lecturer Charles McGregor said there are two stances among professors on AI.
“The ones who want to use it and the ones who want to police students using it and call it plagiarism,” McGregor said.
On one hand, students agree AI is an enhancing tool for college assignments.
“I am for, it’s just an evolution for searching in my opinion,” said Marco Peña, a sophomore physics, math and computer engineering major. “Because, for example, in the past we used to search in books, and now in Google. And, now, we transition from Google into AI.”
Other students say it depends on the assignment.
“I do think [AI is] useful when they correct your grammar, like Grammarly,” said Mildred Infante, a psychology major. “But ChatGPT, I don’t think it’s really useful for students, because they are not really learning.”
McGregor said he thinks AI “negatively impacts the students losing their voice.”
“[It’s] kind of letting AI talk for them and not having their own unique way of writing,” the English lecturer said.
UTRGV does not have any specific policy for AI use in different courses, but it does for students’ work.
“Our general student conduct and academic dishonesty policy does cover students doing their own work, so that will be covered by it,” Latu said.
COLTT Director Garcia said AI is most used in courses such as computer science, government, history and English or other language classes.
Even if the university does not have a software to detect AI, specifically, “Respondus LockDown Browser used to monitor exams and also SafeAssign are leaning into that direction [to detect AI],” Garcia said.
The consequences students receive for using artificial intelligence is still in the hands of the professors.
Professors have the authority to penalize the student or re-assign the coursework, Latu said.
With the emergence of new technology, there can be issues on how it is used.
“Tech is going to be like that,” McGregor said. “There’s this reaction where we have to stop it, but I think, eventually, it is here to stay.”
