LISTEN: ChatGPT is creeping into tertiary education

947’s Drive with Thando speaks with Mpai Rammusi, a lecturer at the Central Johannesburg TVET College.

Listen below:

As the use of ChatGPT and AI rises, more people are integrating it into their daily lives.

From drafting letters, answering questions and following recipes, the possibilities appear limitless.

The negative impact of this is, however, creeping into higher learning institutions.

While some lecturers can pick it up, many assignments still go undetected.

“The problem is that they use it out of context… You will be looking for a specific answer and then they use it, [the answer] will be a generalisation, not specifically what you are looking for.”

– Mpai Rammusi, lecturer – Central Johannesburg TVET College

“Students will copy and paste everything they get from there and not edit it.”

– Mpai Rammusi, lecturer – Central Johannesburg TVET College

The college is currently undergoing training with the European Union whereby lecturers are learning how to do online teaching and how to detect AI.

“With TVET Colleges, unfortunately, we cannot use any other way of detecting this unless you know your student.”

– Mpai Rammusi, lecturer – Central Johannesburg TVET College

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the discussion.