Student Research Guide WQ25/ Impact of AI on Academic Skills in Higher Education

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Academic Skills in Higher Education

 This is a student created research guide for English 102 & Library 201 Learning community

This guide will address the ongoing concerns surrounding the overreliance of artificial intelligence in higher education environments in relation to the potential depletion of academic skills.

These skills include, but are not limited to: critical thinking, literacy, problem-solving, attention span, creative thought, and overall cognitive proficiency. 

THESIS:

• The thesis of this guide emphasizes the potential impacts of the overreliance on artificial intelligence (AI) in college settings. While artificial intelligence offers significant advantages in higher education, excessive reliance on this technology threatens to deplete foundational academic skills, negatively impacting students' cognitive proficiency and critical engagement with learning.

• Research questions addressed in this guide:

1. What is the history of artificial intelligence, and what was its purpose?
2. What are the benefits and drawbacks of AI technology in college settings?
3. How do educators and students feel about AI in higher education?
4. Is there a solution to ensure AI technology will enhance cognitive proficiency rather than diminish it?

There are many ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) has created new opportunities for learning in higher education. Despite the advantages that AI technology has provided to both students and educators, there are still many concerns surrounding the implementation of artificial intelligence in the education sector. This research guide is designed to examine the potential drawbacks associated with an overreliance on AI technologies in relation to the impact on academic skills among college students. Additionally, it aims to educate on the strengths and weaknesses of AI models to promote informed decision-making when utilizing this relatively new technology. The methodology used in this guide consisted of extensive searches through SVC databases, including Credo Reference, Pew Research Center, ProQuest, Encyclopedia Brittanica, ProCon, and other external sites, totaling to 17 sources. The results of this guide conclude that collaborative efforts will be necessary to ensure an appropriate integration of AI systems into higher education settings with the least amount of risk involved for educators and students. Additionally, proper education about artificial intelligence for college faculty and students is needed to provide the most beneficial learning experiences through AI models, as this will prevent ongoing concerns about AI and allow students to enhance their academic skills rather than diminish them. As a result of these findings, implications reveal that further research will need to be conducted in order to find direct correlations with an overreliance on AI and academic skill depletion.

The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) begins with Alex Turing, a British mathematician in the 1950's, who envisioned a machine that would excel beyond the basic functionality of computer programming. In 1956, two years following Turing's death, a mathematics professor at Dartmouth College by the name of John McCarthy held a conference to pitch his idea to a variety of researchers. This conference consisted of the potential exploration of what McCarthy called "thinking machines," resulting in what is now known as the Dartmouth Summer Research Project. As the excitement for this project continued to grow, the next two decades would begin laying the groundwork for artificial intelligence to flourish. 

The American Association for Artificial Intelligence was officially founded in 1979, but is presently known as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). Their website states that the AAAI is "a nonprofit scientific society devoted to advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines." (AAAI). Since its inception, countless breakthroughs have been achieved, such as the revolutionary NASA rovers that are equipped with AI technology to assist in traveling through the harsh terrains on Mars. 

The advancement of artificial intelligence has only increased exponentially, and there have been many ways in which it has integrated itself into the daily lives of people around the country. In the present day, there are various virtual assistants and AI models such as Siri, Alexa, MetaAI, Grok, ChatGPT, OpenAI, CoPilot, and Gemini, along with many others. While these AI assistants may serve different purposes depending on their collaborating platforms, their overall purpose is convenience and efficiency. In time, AI made its way into the higher education system and is now prevalent in research databases, tutoring platforms, language processing and learning models, literacy enhancers, and grading systems. While these features are not inherently good or bad, there are many concerns that derive from the integration of AI systems in college settings due to the imperfections that still reside within them. The risk of bias, misinformation, cheating, plagiarism, privacy breaches, and technical errors are all major components of concern for this new technology, but there is one issue that has yet to be addressed for concern: overreliance. 

Source Citation:

McClain, Colleen. "Americans' Use of ChatGPT Is Ticking Up, but Few Trust Its Election Information." Pew Research Center, 26 Mar. 2024, http://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/03/26/americans-use-of-chatgpt-is-ticking-up-but-few-trust-its-election-information/.

• The data provided by Pew Research Center displays the increase in ChatGPT usage among various age ranges in February 2024, showing an increase percentage in every age group compared to the survey conducted previously in July 2023. 
• Young adults account for 43% of the typical college age range (18-29) having used this technology, a 10% increase from the previous study, with highly educated adults being the most likely to have used ChatGPT at 37%. 
• This data added valuable information to this guide by seeing the increase of ChatGPT from the past two years, allowing for informed predictions on future increases and understanding which age groups will be most affected. 

Source Citation: 

TEDTalk (2024). "Why ChatGPT can't write for you | David Savill | TEDxUniversityofSalford". [video]. Youtube. 

• In his TEDTalk, David Savill makes the argument that AI platforms such as ChatGPT cannot generate and express the same academic skills in reading and writing that humans can, as computer programming lacks emotion, deep understanding, and personal life experience, all being elements of what makes reading and writing meaningful.
• Savill claims that authentic literature is formed through human struggle, unique thoughts/perspectives, and personal memories, all of which artificial intelligence cannot replicate. 
• This video gave perspectives on the aspect of artificial intelligence in educational settings, emphasizing the need for creative thought and the utilization of academic skills to further progress in knowledge that AI technology doesn't have the ability to offer. These perspectives can then be applied to the broader implications of artificial intelligence in education and the ways it effects students in other academic subjects, such as mathematics, sciences, politics, and law.