Example assignment incorporating AI: Psychology Professor Morton Ann Gernsbacher
Psychological Effects of the Internet
Morton Ann Gernsbacher, PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison
Morton Gernsbacher uses the following assignment in her upper-level course on the psychological effects of the internet as well as in her Comm-B research methods course. Her assignment requires students to, in her words: “1) become familiar with ChatGPT; 2) to experience that ChatGPT can be erratically accurate; to become familiar with a ChatGPT detector (and its inaccuracy); and 4) to commit to informing me if they use ChatGPT for their work in my course.”
ChatGPT Assignment
Learn about ChatGPT by doing all of the following:
- First, read an excerpt from Shankland’s (2022) article, “ChatGPT: Why Everyone Is Obsessed With This Mind-Blowing AI Chat.”
- Second, read an excerpt from Lavery’s (2022) article, “ChatGPT: Everything to Know About the Viral,‘Groundbreaking’ AI Bot.”
- Third, read a short collection of “ChatGPT in the News.” Be sure to read the cautions at the end (from Flavor Flav and from someone trying to get ChatGPT to help with math homework).
- Fourth, get more familiar with ChatGPT by using it! Follow the directions for How To Use ChatGPT. If you do not want to set up a (free!) ChatGPT account, contact Professor Gernsbacher, and she will give you an alternate task for this part of the assignment.
- Fifth, learn the importance of *always* using critical thinking when using ChatGPT.
- To refresh your memory of what a moral panic is, which has been the topic of this Unit, read Ferguson and Faye’s (2018) article, “A History of Panic Over Entertainment Technology.”
- Read Haridy’s (2020) article, “Concerns over Kids’ Screen-Time a Modern-Day ‘Moral Panic’, Says Study.”
- Then, to learn how not to panic about ChatGPT, read Greene’s (2022) Mastodon post and Eyler’s (2022) Tweet, both of which recommend avoiding moral panic about ChatGPT by teaching students to use critical thinking when using ChatGPT.
- To practice using critical thinking when using ChatGPT, go to ChatGPT (or the ChatGPT Playground you used before) and ask it to answer each of these SIX questions. Write down what ChatGPT gets right and what it gets wrong when answering each question.
- Who is Bucky Badger and what type of clothes does he wear? [NOTE: If you can’t remember what Bucky Badger wears, see this photo.]
- What does Bucky Badger do, at football games, after his team scores? [NOTE: If you don’t know what Bucky does after his team scores, see this video.]
- Who is Bucky Badger and what type of hat does he wear? [NOTE: Bucky doesn’t wear a hat, but this question is to illustrate the principle of GIGO, garbage in, garbage out — meaning ChatGPT might not correct your wrong assumptions.]
- How long has Bucky Badger been the mascot at the University of Minnesota? [NOTE: This question is also to illustrate the principle of GIGO.]
- What tradition that has to do with Abe Lincoln do UW-Madison students do when they graduate? [NOTE: If you’re not familiar with this tradition, see this photo.]
- What do the chairs look like on Memorial Union Terrace? [NOTE: If you can’t remember what the Terrace chairs look like, see this photo.]
6. Sixth, learn how to use a ChatGPT detector, which is used to detect whether text was written by a human or by ChatGPT.
- Go to this GPT-2 Output Detector (you do not need to create an account to use this).
Copy the response you posted on the Discussion Board for Unit 1: Assignment #3 and paste it into the ChatGPT detector box. Take a partial screenshot of the output of the ChatGPT detector (meaning a screenshot of just the output, including the results bar, not your entire screen; your screenshot should look like this; if you do not know how to take a partial screenshot, this website will help you). - Copy this response that ChatGPT-created for Unit 1: Assignment #3 and paste it into the ChatGPT detector box. Take a partial screenshot of the ChatGPT detector’s output (meaning a screenshot of just the output, including the results bar, not your entire screen).
7. Seventh, to answer the question of whether you can use ChatGPT in this course: Yes, you can use it, but you must ALSO do the following:
- Apply critical thinking to anything ChatGPT tells you.
- Make a Gradebook Comment (not a Discussion Board post, but a Gradebook Comment) telling the instructor and TAs whenever you have used ChatGPT and how you used it.
8. Eighth, in a Word doc, Google doc, Pages doc, or any other type of document:
- Describe how accurately ChatGPT answered each of the SIX UW-Madison questions.
- Paste in the two screenshots you made from the ChatGPT detector activity.
- Write the statement “I know that in this course I can use ChatGPT, but I must always apply critical thinking to anything ChatGPT tells me AND I must always make a Gradebook Comment (not a Discussion Board post, but a Gradebook Comment) telling the instructor and TAs whenever I have used ChatGPT and how I have used it.”
- Convert your Word doc, Google doc, Pages doc, or any other type of document to a PDF, named YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit01_ChatGPT.pdf.
