5 Ways Students Can Best Utilise ChatGPT

Since ChatGPT was launched by OpenAI a little over a month ago there have been a host of concerns raised in the education industry, ranging from conflicting reports concerning essays it generates being able to pass (or not pass) long-held plagiarism checkers such as Turnitin to concerns that the program will render traditional modes of education obsolete. 

Regardless of personal opinions on the software, the reality is that this software is here to stay. Indeed, OpenAI recently indicated an intent to launch a premium version of the chatbot just days ago. Thus, instead of pushing against the force of gravity, educators must embrace this technology and encourage the responsible and efficient use of the tool to develop students. 

In this article, we will explore 5 ways in which students can best utilise ChatGPT in their studies.

1) Personalised Learning

One of the most significant advantages of ChatGPT for students is its ability to provide personalised learning experiences. 

ChatGPT can generate tailored responses based on a student's questions and interests, which can help to improve engagement with the material and deepen understanding. 

Students can utilise ChatGPT to further expand on an original thought or concept in the ideation phase, or strategically prompt ChatGPT to expand on a fraction of the text.

For example, students can use ChatGPT to generate reading comprehension exercises tailored to their understanding and interests or to provide additional examples and explanations for a complex concept in order to flesh out a deeper understanding of the content. 

2) Supplementing Tutoring 

ChatGPT can also serve as a 24/7 tutoring aid, providing students with instant feedback and assistance. 

This can be especially helpful for students who struggle with certain concepts or who need extra support. 

For example, students can use ChatGPT to receive real-time feedback on their writing or to analyse the step-by-step solutions to a difficult maths problem. 

Students can utilise this technology with their tutor to improve on content already produced or to build a base schematic upon which the tutor and student can build upon further/refine. 

3) Referencing/Research Assistant

Referencing correctly can be one of the most challenging aspects of senior levels of study, with assignments often having to be formatted into various styles for certain assignments, Harvard and APA being two common examples. 

Chat GPT has the capacity to assist students in correctly collating and organising the relevant information from a source into the format, thus avoiding the need for expensive subscription-based models that have offered this assistance to students in the past

ChatGPT can also be used as a research assistance tool, helping students to find relevant information and sources for their studies. 

For example, students can use ChatGPT to generate a list of sources on a specific topic or to summarise a research paper. 

4) Language Learning and Development

Over 4.9 million Australians speak a first language other than English. In light of this ChatGPT has enormous potential in assisting in the refinement and development of English among students from an EAL background. 

In a broader sense, the chatbot has the potential to enhance all of our language skills, gone are the days of utilising a Roget's Thesaurus to find synonyms and antonyms. ChatGPT can not only find those for you, but integrate them for you in your existing text. 

Moreover, ChatGPT's translation qualities can be harnessed by students studying a language to double-check translations or refine their understanding of various sentence structures and features associated with their language of study. 

The applications in relation to language are seemingly endless. 

5) Exam Preparation

ChatGPT can be used to create practice questions and quizzes for students to prepare for exams. Moreover, students can take existing past exam questions and reverse engineer them via ChatGPT into s similar style of the question while embedding new aspects or contexts. 

In doing so students provide themselves with a plethora of potential questions to navigate. However, there is an important point that students must consider in utilising ChatGPT to formulate questions and responses, ChatGPT isn't perfect, it does make mistakes. 

The responsible tact to take here is to utilise the assistance of your tutor in checking and revising any questions that you may have built on ChatGPT, they will help you in navigating the nuances and contextualisation that can be commonly missed by AI chatbots. 

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Conclusions

It is essential to keep in mind that ChatGPT is a tool and should be used as a supplement to traditional learning methods, not as a replacement. While ChatGPT can provide personalised instruction and feedback, it cannot replace the value of face-to-face interaction with a teacher or Climb mentor. 

Additionally, ChatGPT is based on pre-existing data, and can only generate responses based on what it has been trained on, which limits its ability to think creatively and come up with new ideas or solutions.

In conclusion, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help students to enhance their learning experience by providing personalized instruction and feedback, increasing efficiency, and improving accessibility. 

However, it is important to be aware of its limitations, including the lack of human interaction, limited creativity, the potential for bias, and dependence on technology. 

Students should use ChatGPT thoughtfully and in conjunction with other learning methods to achieve their best possible results.