ChatGPT Resources for Faculty

The University Center for Teaching and Learning has developed this resource page to help faculty learn about generative AI tools like ChatGPT, their capabilities, and how they can plan their teaching in consideration of the emergence of these tools. Generative AI tools are constantly evolving. Information on this site will be updated regularly to reflect those changes.

Recorded Teaching Center ChatGPT Events

If you would like to propose a resource to be added to this page, please contact us at teaching@pitt.edu.

What is ChatGPT?

In November 2022, Open AI released ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer), a free generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Quillbot, and DALL-E 2 use machine learning models to produce new content like text or images in response to a prompt or instructions.

What can ChatGPT and other generative AI tools do?

Generative AI tools can:

Respond to prompts and questions
Summarize and synthesize information
Revise and edit content
Generate creative works like musical compositions, stories, jokes, and poems
Write and correct code
Manipulate data
Play games

What are the limitations of tools like ChatGPT?

Generative AI tools are constantly learning and evolving but, as of the date of this publication, some limitations include:

Inability to consistently integrate real research into text. ChatGPT can produce text with a reference list, but the references often do not correspond to the text created or are fake citations made of a mix of real publication information from multiple sources.
Inability to respond to prompts or questions about recent events. ChatGPT’s was trained using data from up to 2021.
Creating potentially incorrect, oversimplified, unsophisticated, or biased responses to questions or prompts.

What are some opportunities for using tools like ChatGPT in my teaching?

Although many faculty are understandably concerned the academic integrity implications of students using tools like ChatGPT, generative AI can also be used to enhance and support teaching. Here are some of the ways that you can incorporate AI tools into your teaching:

Generate responses to common student questions or emails.
Create test questions or test question answer options.
Draft lesson plans or assignment instructions.
Generate feedback comments to create a comment bank for assignments.
Create examples or samples for students to compare their own work to or analyze.
Walk students through how to use ChatGPT like a sophisticated version of Grammarly to revise and edit their writing.
Demonstrate how to use ChatGPT as a basic tutoring tool to help students get explanations for confusing concepts.
Use ChatGPT to give students’ real-time feedback on their writing in language learning classes.
Summarize qualitative student feedback from OMETs.

What can I do to encourage academic integrity?

Currently, there is no equivalent of Turnitin for checking student work for the use of AI. There are beta versions of some tools like GPTZero and the Hugging Face AI detector that purport to detect and report the likelihood that text has been generated using AI, however, these tools are not completely reliable and should not be used as plagiarism detectors. OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, is developing a prototype of a watermarking tool that will help flag text as AI-generated. Turnitin is also in the process of enhancing its products’ AI-detection capabilities.

Many inclusive teaching strategies also encourage academic integrity:

Clearly communicate whether and how generative AI tools can be used in syllabi. For examples, see this list of sample policy statements that address AI use and their sources.
Talk to students about why academic integrity matters and the ethical and practical implications of academic integrity violations. Emphasize your trust in your students and your belief that they can successfully complete coursework themselves. Invite students to ask questions and attend office hours if they are confused or feel unable to successfully complete their work.
Decrease the motivation to commit academic integrity violations by building students’ intrinsic motivation to engage in coursework fully. Some strategies for building intrinsic motivation include emphasizing the relevance of learning tasks, creating authentic assessments, and giving students choices about how to express their learning (e.g. allowing students to select a topic or determine what type of learning artifact to create) (Lang, 2013).
Reduce students’ assessment anxiety, which can contribute to the likelihood of academic integrity violations, by incorporating low-stakes assessments and scaffolded assignments that allow students to receive periodic feedback and improve their work over time.
Develop assignments that cannot successfully be completed using AI tools. This might involve having students complete part or all of the assignment during class or designing assignments that include tasks that are outside of ChatGPT’s current capabilities. Examples might include assignments that require students to draw from recent events or class discussions or assignments that incorporate research and citations which you can then check.

ChatGPT and Teaching Resources

Sample Assignments That Integrate Generative AI, Created by Pitt Faculty (must be logged into Canvas to access).