Objective would be to increase efficiency without threatening the originality of texts performed by students
For many university students in China, AI (artificial intelligence) often plays an indispensable role in learning.
A student specializing in a Shanghai University said he had taken advantage of the AI to produce PowerPoint slides for a presentation, a form of final examination of a course.
“AI software can produce a PPT document in just 5 minutes and adjust the page’s style and aesthetics according to my orders. The presentation went without problems and no one realized that I had resorted to AI to get help ”he said.
According to a study conducted last year, the proportions of undergraduate students who used AI to assist learning “sometimes”, “often” e “Always” They were 33%, 40%and 12%, respectively. Approximately 1/3 of the interviewees said he directly copied the content produced by AI.
The widespread use of AI by university students fired the alarm among the universities of China. Fudan University in Shanghai introduced at the end of November last year a set of AI restriction regulations in the writing of undergraduate theses, marking the first practical and detailed regulations on the use of AI released by Chinese universities.
The rules involve 6 prohibitions, including the writing of undergraduate theses, the elaboration of research plans, the creation of algorithms and model structures, the elaboration of the thesis structure and the summary of the conclusions, as well as various penalties, such as the revocation of diplomas in case of serious violations.
This is not an isolated case. Tianjin University of Science and Technology, for example, stipulated that the content of an undergraduate thesis produced by artificial intelligence cannot exceed 40%. The Faculty of Journalism and Communication of the Normal University of Beijing and the Faculty of Communication of the Normal University of East China, headquartered in Shanghai, published a guideline in conjunction requiring that the content produced by the tasks is marked in red and does not exceed 20% of the full text.
The new trend also imposed new requirements on the form of education. “Teaching should focus more on human skills that cannot be replaced by machines”She said Shen Yang, an associate professor at the Faculty of Public and International Affairs at Jiao Tonghai University.
“A fluent writing and clear logic are the main skills we hope to develop in students. They are closely related to the ability to think creatively ”said the head of the Division of Academic Affairs at Fudan University.
Several teachers said there is no common and reliable detection method to determine how much a student’s work is generated by AI. This requires teachers’ ability to understand and use AI.
Some teachers have indicated that they are increasing practical classroom tasks and reducing tasks after class, especially those involving writing, so that students are forced to participate better in the learning process.
On the other hand, AI has its positive uses. Several college teachers said schools should guide students about proper use of tools to increase learning efficiency and expand their horizons.
According to Fudan University regulations, the conditions under which AI can be used include helping to recover and review literature, create graphs and figures based on other existing ones and gather references – all to improve efficiency. This is only allowed with the consent of the supervisor and when the content produced by AI does not affect the assessment of the student’s innovation capacity.
AI is also useful for teachers. For Liang Ziyin, who is an intern at a high school as an English teacher, AI is regularly used to prepare tests for students.
“Machines can think of a variety of themes in a moment. As teachers need to change tricks to create new tests frequently, it will be difficult if we completely depend on ourselves to think about new questions ”she explained.
“The use of AI is essential for all spheres of life. It is important to understand it, use it well and overcome it ”Said Sun Haiqin, who teaches conference interpretation at the University of International Studies of Shanghai.
With information from.
