The presence of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) in education is inevitable. Rejecting its presence is like immersing yourself in the backwardness of technological progress. In fact, many benefits can be reaped from generative artificial intelligence and even many large companies have used Gen AI to increase work productivity. Globally, AI adoption in the industrial sector has reached 56 percent, with generative AI estimated to contribute up to USD 4.4 trillion per year to the global economy (https://indonesia.go.id).

Unfortunately, this development does not seem to have received a swift response from the Indonesian government. In fact, based on the Global AI Index 2023 cited on indonesia.go.id, Indonesia is still ranked 46th out of 62 countries, which shows the need to improve digital infrastructure to face challenges in AI development.

In the educational landscape, the use of AI is also still a debate among educators between allowing or prohibiting it. The ban on the use of AI Genes in educational institutions occurs because there are concerns about its negative impacts, such as the use of AI Genes for cheating and plagiarism of written assignments, such as essay or paper writing assignments.

In a survey, about one-third of college students surveyed (with a sample of 1000) in the US had used AI chatbots such as Chat GPT to complete their written assignments, with 60% using the program on more than half of their assignments (intelligent.com, 2023).

In Indonesia, there is no massive survey regarding the use of Gen AI to complete final assignments such as thesis. However, with the massive advertisements on social media about using GenAI to create papers and even journal articles, it is possible that students and even lecturers have used Gen AI to do these tasks.

A small-scale study conducted by Abbas (2023) found that 51.4% of 35 students agreed that AI helped them in completing their final project-scientific paper (TA-KTI). Furthermore, 45.7% or as many as 16 students stated that they used AI in writing TA-KTI only in certain parts.

Another study with more respondents (430) conducted by Niyu et al (2024) involving 119 lecturers and 311 students showed that compared to students, more lecturers know and use Chat GPT. However, the social system regarding the use of Chat GPT in the academic field has not been established and currently most educators consider the use of Chat GPT unethical.

Usage Protocol

The Ministry of Education and Culture has published AI usage protocols, although it lags behind the rest of the world. For example, in early 2023, Chan researched the perception and impact of text generative AI technology in Hong Kong universities. Involving 457 students and 180 teachers and staff, the study produced an AI ecological education policy framework consisting of three dimensions: pedagogical, governance, and operational. The pedagogical dimension focuses on improving learning through AI; governance addresses privacy, security, and accountability; while the operational dimension covers infrastructure and training.

What about the guidelines created by MoECristek? In summary, the guidelines emphasize responsible and ethical use of Gen AI, maintaining academic honesty, privacy, and intellectual property rights. Gen AI can also be utilized by lecturers in preparing materials and assessing students, as well as assisting students in assignments and presentations. However, there is a risk of dependence on AI and the potential for misinformation, so the use of this technology must be done wisely and critically.

When looking at the outline of Kemendikbudristek's version of the use of Gen AI and comparing with the policy framework for the use of AI written by Chan (2023), the guidelines made by Kemendikbudristek have not explained the operational framework. This means that the government or more specifically the campus still needs to provide infrastructure and training. These two things are important to do because in practice students and lecturers are still constrained to use unlimited access to the use of Gen AI. There is also still a lack of understanding of students and perhaps lecturers in the use of Gen AI that is correct and does not violate academic ethics.

Universities abroad, for example in the US and Australia, have provided detailed guidelines for the responsible use of Gen AI and each course also clearly provides guidelines on how to use Gen AI including citation techniques when using information from Gen AI. However, even though there are already rules, of course the campus will also find it difficult to detect any violations. Therefore, there needs to be an effort to really ensure users AI with full responsibility and integrity.

The role of lecturers is very important in ensuring the use of Gen AI and also need to be more creative and innovative in teaching and giving assignments to students. If lecturers still use the old way by assigning students to make papers, presentations, write essays, or make book summaries, then many students only rely on Gen AI to do it.

Lecturers also become confused about how to give their assessment because the results of their writing or work are good but not necessarily their own work. Therefore, there needs to be a change in the way of teaching that is more about problem solving, cooperative learning, and linking to contextual and specific issues. Students can use AI Genes to help outline concepts or find easier explanations of a concept or theory.

Managing, Not Resisting

To give a clearer picture of the scenario, I would like to share a story about how the learning process using Gen AI as a tool to help students learn and not depend excessively on Gen AI.

In a lecture in a doctoral program at the University of Canberra, Australia that I am currently attending, I discovered something new that impressed me with the way the class was taught by a professor on my campus. I usually call him Prof. Ben. He is a professor of law and also a former advocate who was assigned to teach a course on basic principles in research.

In this lecture, he invited students to learn about ethics in research. This material is certainly very important and needs to be mastered by doctoral students because it determines the success of a student's study in the candidature process. Like lectures in Indonesia, here there are also sessions that contain lectures or explanations of material. There are also discussion sessions or rather working on case studies to apply the understanding of concepts that have been conveyed by the lecturer.

In this activity, students share their understanding in small groups. Then invited to share with the large group. In this sharing session, students try to express their opinions, of course with strong arguments and evidence from existing literature. The role of the teacher here is more on facilitating participants to discuss by asking questions that strengthen understanding and deepening the topics being discussed in lectures.

In the discussion process, participants can also search for reading sources on the internet or use Gen AI, such as Chat GPT or Copilot to find the definition of a concept or term that has not been understood by the participants. So the use of AI here is as a support in learning not for doing assignments.

Another learning activity that is no less interesting is the group presentation by starting to read the article accompanied by questions to explore the contents of the article. Students are also asked to explain the important findings of the article read by adjusting the concept of ethics that has been explained in the lecture material. Students are also asked to create presentation slides that only contain illustrative images or diagrams with a maximum of 20 words.

In the process of making slides, students can use Gen AI and are allowed to find the outline of the article with the help of Gen AI to simply make it easier to understand the entire content of the article. In important parts, students can read more carefully to strengthen understanding. When presenting students do not rely much on the text but how can we articulate our understanding to solve ethical problems in research as described in the case.

Reflection and analysis skills get a sufficient portion in doing this group presentation task.

By working on such group presentation tasks, students are not just looking for answers that are already in the article but can also apply the knowledge gained by trying to build new knowledge collaboratively.

If we refer to Bloom's Taxonomy, the levels of thinking skills ranging from low to high levels are actually practiced: remembering, understanding, applying, elaborating (analysis), integrating (synthesis), and evaluating (evaluation). With this learning model, students will really learn the lecture material and at the same time apply the concepts by referring to problems that are simulated with case examples.

There is an essay writing assignment as a final assignment for the course, but because the essay writing assignment must be related to our own problems, it is difficult to simply rely on Gen AI to create an essay according to the prompt we provide. It is not intended to prohibit the use of Gen AI but how Gen AI can be used to deepen knowledge and sharpen our critical thinking skills and creativity.

We realize that Gen AI often provides incorrect and biased information, especially if the prompt we provide is related to something specific that is not yet in the internet database. So we need to properly manage the presence of Gen AI in the world of education, not reject it altogether.

(Waliyadin, Lecturer of English Language Education, Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, Ph.D. Student at the University of Canberra)

This article has been published on detik.com Online Media on October 23, 2024 at 15.27 WIB