Online Teaching Didn’t Translate to Learning

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Teaching Program

Field experiences and student teaching You’ll take part in field experiences in elementary and secondary schools to observe current education practices and confirm that education is the right career choice for you. Then you will student teach for several months alongside a school’s teacher and a Bethel supervisor. Their coaching will help you apply coursework and theory in a classroom and move you closer to being qualified to teach in your own classroom upon program completion.

Student success Caring advisors and professors will support you and ensure that you have everything you need to succeed.

Flexible course options Our program—which includes both face-to-face and online courses—is designed for students who work full time, have families, and are involved in their community. Along with the traditional 22-month timeline, you can pursue a fast-track option and finish in as few as 18 months, plus a thesis.

Christian and diverse perspectives Courses are taught from a foundation of faith, which adds meaning. And you’ll consider educational theory and practices from national and international viewpoints to learn best practices of K-12 education in Minnesota public and private schools.

ChatGPT will facilitate the teaching-learning process

We now have a novel, omniscient, 24 x 7 digital assistant at our beck and call.  ChatGPT has taken the world by storm with its multifaceted capabilities.  It can write essays, polish texts, explain, tutor, make quiz questions, ace examinations, write code, debug, generate art;  it usage is only limited by our imagination.   Obviously, there are limitations!  It can give wrong answers when nuanced concepts are involved and when training data is limited.  Running ChatGPT is also exorbitant.  Given the ingenuity of the human mind, these limitations will be overcome sooner than later.  The impact of ChatGPT on the integrity, rigour, and creativity of the teaching-learning process has set alarm bells ringing within the educational community.  Are our apprehensions justified?  Not entirely, because cultural lag is a well-established phenomenon.  Our approach towards ChatGPT should be pragmatic.  In the following paragraphs, I will explore how ChatGPT will facilitate the teaching-learning process.

In my earlier blogs, I have explained why conventional monologue lectures are passe and how lectures ought to be peppered with exciting engineering videos and talks by industry experts.  Unfortunately, ChatGPT may have upended the earlier, proposed teaching-learning paradigm.  Unlike Google, students can effortlessly get customized answers, videos, and real-life case studies through ChatGPT to enhance their understanding and bridge the gap between theory and practice.  They can also get answers to previous years’ examination questions.  Thus, it is an opportune time to experiment with a new teaching paradigm in IITs where course content is not “spoon-fed,” but where students become a partner in the teaching-learning process.  

We should start the process of implementing the Flipped Classroom Pedagogy (FCP).  Unlike conventional lectures, the students are given reading and viewing materials before the class for the entire week.  Students are therefore expected to be familiar with the course content when they come to the class.  Now, the professor has sufficient time to “leisurely” (i) explain important concepts, (ii) solve problems which relate to both fundamental understanding and real-life practices, (iii) discuss case studies, (iv) have discussions between  student groups, (v) show videos of engineering applications, and (vi) conduct online talks by experts in the field.  I see two major advantages of FCP.  One, it gives students a holistic knowledge of the subject.  Two, it sustains students’ interest in the course.  The major pitfalls in implementing FCP and the methods to overcome them will be discussed in another article.

My experience has shown that academically deficient students (ADS) do not come forward to clarify their doubts in courses.  In IIT, Kanpur, we reached out to ADS through their seniors, an effort which was successful but could not be sustained.  Later, at IIT(ISM) we organized special tutorial sessions by senior students in a few difficult core courses.  Unfortunately, there was no response.  I am sure ChatGPT will be extremely helpful; it will simultaneously conceal the identity and be a helpful aid in clarifying doubts of the ADS.  ChatGPT still does not have the ability to define the finer points of a subject.  For example, most students do not have a clear understanding of the definition of concentrations that is used for calculating, for example, the speed at which a sugar cube dissolves in a cup of tea.  But this is more a reflection of how a subject is taught; it is certainly not ChatGPT’s fault.

One area of worry is class projects which are used to enhance students’ fundamental and practical understanding.  I am convinced that ChatGPT will be used unfailingly to get good grades without actually knowing what is written.  Here, our worries may be misplaced since we will soon have a ChatGPT plugin for checking plagiarism.  Professors can then work around this plugin to ensure original, thoughtful contributions from students with the help of ChatGPT.

What about examinations?  Theoretically, offline examinations, with no internet access, should not be a cause for alarm.  However, two possible problems could arise.  Many professors would use ChatGPT directly to set exam questions.  And students can build question banks with answers from ChatGPT.  Both actions will dent the objectives of the teaching-learning process.  Is there a way out of this logjam?  Fortunately, yes!  Open book examinations (OBEs) should become the norm. They will test the creativity of professors for setting “simple” questions that test basic concepts.   There is an ingrained misconception about OBEs:  you have to set really difficult questions involving multiple concepts.  Not true at all!  My extensive experience with OBEs has shown that even if you ask students to answer questions — in their own words — on topics  that have been explicitly discussed in class, many will still falter.  

My major concern is about the possible misuse of ChatGPT in PhD theses.  PhD is the easiest degree to acquire because it involves very limited courses, compared to UG/PG programs, and considerably depends on the experts selected to evaluate theses.  The fact that PhD is just not a degree but a process that helps students understand the logical steps in solving a problem — identify a problem, develop an investigation methodology, analyze results, propose a solution — is lost on many students and professors.  For them, it is only a degree for career advancement.  Down the line a balance will be achieved whereby some important aspects of a PhD thesis such as literature survey will become faster and less arduous, thanks to ChatGPT.  However, the conclusions drawn for defining the objectives of the thesis will be original and thought provoking.

Every new disruptive technology arouses awe and apprehension in equal measure, be it the calculator, google, genetically modified crops, artificial organs, or the mobile.  ChatGPT will be no different; there will be lots of good use and some misuse!  Fortunately, many entrepreneurs will develop businesses focused on checking ChatGPT misuse as seen, for example, in the development of anti-virus software and new encrypted communication techniques.  As a metallurgist, I am excited about the role of ChatGPT in reducing the lead time for developing new value-added alloys and novel processes for the efficient extraction and recycling of critical metals from low-grade ores and industrial wastes.  Three cheers for ChatGPT and its future avatars! 

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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