What are you telling your students about how they can use ChatGPT in your class?

ChatGPT and other large language models are powerful tools that could be used to accelerate, supplement, or destroy education — perhaps depending on who you listen to. We all know our students are using it. So what do we do about it?

Personally, I have decided to lean into ChatGPT (see previous Teach the 4 Ps blog post). I am not sure how things will go in the longer term but for now, here is how I am dealing with it in my marketing classes:

First, I put guidelines or rules on each assignment with respect to ChatGPT use. I mostly tell them they can use ChatGPT to help them learn about a topic (terminology for example, or to simply ask for more examples of a concept), to help them with writing (I have a lot non-native English speakers, but many of my native speakers are not the best writers, so I tell them to ask ChatGPT to evaluate their writing. To get feedback, not all corrections – so they learn. Then they can use it to fix their paper.) They are generally not allowed to use it to answer the questions. I make my students responsible for any errors.

Second, I had a class session with an in-class activity on ChatGPT. They would work with a partner to learn more about customers, competitors, and company for a sustainable brand of their choice. It forced them all to use it and we could discuss what worked and didn’t. This coincided with my coverage of Chapter 3 (macroenvironment). Before class I made sure all of my students had a ChatGPT account or could access Bing in creative mode and brought a computer to class that day.

Third, I gave them a link to a document I created titled “ChatGPT for College Students.” Feel free to download this file and edit it as you like. Just put in a footnote that it was based on my work or something like that. Or let your students link to this directly. And you or your students should feel free to add comments so I can learn even more.