Webinar addresses issues and challenges of utilising ChatGPT in education

ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI. Its impact on education has been enormous. It can be used as a teaching tool to assist students in learning and practising their language abilities through conversational interactions with the chatbot. Nevertheless, it can also bring about adverse effects on education spheres.

To delve deeper into the subject, UTAR Centre for Internet of Things and Big Data (CIoTBD) organised a webinar titled “ChatGPT in Education: Issues and Challenges” on 28 June 2023 via Microsoft Teams.  It saw more than 100 participants in attendance. The webinar was moderated by Centre for IoT and Big Data Chairperson Dr Tan Joi San.

Invited to speak at the webinar was Faculty of Computing and Engineering Head for School of Computing of Quest International University, Perak Ts Assoc Prof Dr Anbuselvan Sangodiah, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Science and a master’s degree in Information Technology from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), and a doctoral degree in Information Technology from Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). Dr Anbuselvan is an active researcher in the computing field; he actively engages in international publications and conferences.

Dr Anbuselvan explaining ChatGPT

Dr Anbuselvan started by defining ChatGPT and the major potential issues associated with it. He mentioned that ChatGPT has intelligence and if used correctly, it can nurture students’ innovative and critical thinking skills. He added, “We cannot ban ChatGPT and other AI tools completely. We have to change with time.” He also added, “Educators must take responsibility for how students cite properly to show respect for other people’s work.”

On the other hand, Dr Anbuselvan also mentioned that ChatGPT does not excel in every domain. According to him, domains such as law and medicine often give out a lot of biased, inaccurate data while providing users with fake information like a non-performing URL. 

Dr Anbuselvan also gave several suggestions and strategies on how universities can respond to plagiarism issues by implementing a more sophisticated tool and using specific questions like a case study-based question so that students are unable to rely on ChatGPT to do the work. They can also make presentations compulsory as part of the assessment, tighten up the anti-plagiarism regulations and create more awareness of plagiarism.

The informative webinar ended with an interactive Q&A session.

Dr Tan moderating the webinar