By KAITLIN UNDERWOOD
Student Reporter
The Amarillo College English Department allows students to use artificial intelligence, or AI, to assist with assignments when approved by an instructor.
Students can use AI to generate ideas, comprehend assignment instructions and aid in essay revision.
AI is reshaping how education looks for both students and instructors.
“It is opening up a whole world of possibilities where students can get one-on-one tutoring at the tips of their fingers,” Pam Ortega, associate professor of English, said.
“As an instructor, I can have it perform many tasks for me that used to take me a lot of time such as writing tests or creating rubrics for assignments. Students can use AI as a tool to comprehend and complete assignments. There are many benefits of using AI. One way that it can help students is to have it serve as a personal tutor,” Ortega said.
“If a student is having trouble understanding a text, he/she can copy it into the AI and have it make an outline or summary. It can also provide step by step instructions for completing more difficult tasks for their classes. Those are only a few of a million possibilities,” Ortega said.
Officials said that applying AI in college prepares students for AI in the workforce. “Students should know what AI is and how to use it because they will most likely encounter it in their workplaces,” Luci Creery, assistant professor of the English department, said. “Whether students realize it or not, AI is everywhere, and they probably already use it nearly every day. It’s important that students know what AI is and how to use it appropriately so the AI doesn’t undermine their own learning processes and their integrity as students.”
Creery said students should solely use AI to enhance their work, not replace it. “Using AI to write entire essays or do entire projects is unethical and is a form of cheating. Copying and pasting passages written by AI into your work and not giving AI attribution is a form of cheating, and students could receive a zero for an assignment submission that was AI-generated,” she said.
Some instructors believe that AI should not raise any concern. “Artificial Intelligence is not new. You have probably lived most of your life with some AI operating in the background and didn’t even know it,” Catherine Frazer, assistant professor department chair of English and cultural studies, said. “The explosion on the scene of Generative AI like ChatGPT is not cause for alarm any more than the typewriter of spellcheck.”
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