Photo: 123RF
By Bailey Brannon
A university lecturer believes artificial intelligence has the potential to personalise learning and provide students with in-depth feedback.
AI-driven technology has been on the rise with open access tools such as ChatGPT, allowing people to ask the bot any question.
Students have been able to use the technology to help them write assignments, with some universities introducing ways to detect bot-written work.
Alex Sims, an associate professor in the Department of Commercial Law at the University of Auckland, said there are benefits that can come from AI tech within the classroom.
"It can give much more individualised feedback; it can take a lot of time to give feedback with 300 assignments to mark.
"What we have to do is give students a list of common mistakes, but the students don't think they've made those mistakes."
Sims said academics have been able to use AI to tailor far richer comments for the students.
Many assignments tend to test students' writing ability rather than how well they know the subject.
Associate Professor Alex Sims. Photo: Supplied
Sims said assessments will start to see redesigns in the future moving away from essay writing which in the end will level the field for students.
"I've taught students that have had dyslexia or English as a second language who know the answer but have trouble communicating getting lower marks.
"Compared to someone else that doesn't know the content but can write it well, but now we have tools that can write even better than people."
There have been courses implementing ChatGPT having students critique the answer given by bots, fact-checking the information.
Sims said there are already academics embracing AI, but there will be many that are going to find the change difficult.
"For a number of others it's very challenging, what they've learned all their lives has all changed which will be difficult."
The plagiarism software Turnitin has now begun updating the tool with the ability to start checking work for AI-generated content.
The tool is used across all universities in New Zealand, but academics are sceptical on how accurate it will be.