A new ‘study mode’ feature has appeared on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, in an attempt to encourage students towards more cognitive/active learning, reports Times Higher Education (THE).
The tech giant explained that the ‘study mode’ option will allow students to work through questions step by step, instead of just getting the answers.
Open AI brought in academics from Stanford University to help develop this new feature.
James Donovan, head of education and cognitive outcomes research at OpenAI, told THE the tool focuses on improving “cognitive outcomes and retention of information” and can help “hard bake” good educational practice into student learning.
He explained while the model goes some way towards discouraging student cheating, a “holistic” approach is needed from universities. Donovan said: “The function of study mode offsets a little bit the risk of cheating in that it forces cognitive engagement. The whole point of it is to use Socratic dialogue and to make sure that people are actually doing what they’re doing.
“But the long-term goal of addressing cheating in the classroom is probably more of a holistic thing that needs to happen with departments and with institutions, beyond just a single feature.”
Donovan revealed OpenAI is working on other features to help detect AI cheating but “we can’t go all in on those solutions yet because the false positive rate is too high”.
