Weaving its way into social media, marketing campaigns and movies, artificial intelligence (AI) has found a new home in the Cal State University (CSU) system. With the expansion of AI across California universities, professors at Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) are fighting to fan the flame of student motivation.
A statement from Chancellor Mildred Garcia announced that the CSU would be the first higher education system to embed AI software into its academic program. In collaboration with major tech companies such as Adobe and Alphabet as well as OpenAI, ChatGPT Edu aims to aid research, personalize study guides and create lesson plans – amongst other things. The program will be accessible to students, faculty and staff across all 23 CSU universities.
Doreen Danielson has been a professor for 20 years and a lecturer in humanities and communications (HCOM) at CSUMB for two years. Danielson recognizes the convenience of AI for students and professors and expressed concern about the ease of AI overshadowing the responsibilities of professors.
“As faculty members, overall our academic journey and growth professionally needs to be focused on enhancing student learning experiences,” said Danielson. “It should not be focused on only experiencing the latest technology that is trending. I think we’re moving away from that focus.”
Kristen La Follette has been a lecturer at CSUMB in the HCOM department for more than a decade but recently has experienced unique complications amidst the rise of AI.
“It’s been a bit challenging trying to emphasize to students why developing their own skills is really important,” said La Follette. “AI can be an enhancement to that, but not a replacement for it.”
Danielson has been experiencing similar problems cultivating student motivation. Recently, she met with one of her students as they discussed the overwhelming nature of artificial intelligence.
“I heard this from a second-year student in person, ‘What is the point of me coming to these classes? What is the point of this education at this point?’” Danielson said. “Students are seeing how easily AI is responding to everything, why do they have to write this essay? Why do they have to take these classes?”
Student tutor and fourth-year Japanese language and culture major Levi Mahler has been feeling a similar sense of hopelessness noticing her professors rely more on AI.
“Some of them have kind of given up on trying to explain things thoroughly and they’re like, ‘if we do something wrong we should use ChatGPT to try to figure out what would sound better or look better,’” Mahler said. “Why am I even in college? If a lot of my learning is going to be based on the usage of AI, why am I paying all this money to be taught by someone who is an expert and then be told how to do something by something I wouldn’t have to pay thousands of dollars to have access to?”
Noticing students’ disillusionment with higher education – in part – by AI, Danielson begs the question, “Is education now as valuable to today’s CSU freshman or overall students as it used to be?”
Danielson suggests the success of AI in academia is dependent on professors and how it’s implemented in their classrooms. “This is the future, they’re going to be using it anyway, but we’re not necessarily teaching students how AI should not replace their human creativity, problem-solving and thinking.
“Integrity matters, deep thinking matters, we are utilizing our brains to be better humans for our society.”