ChatGPT and the Honor System

By KC Washington

May 3, 2023

Just like writing with a pen and paper or in cursive, the honor system is an old fashioned, outdated method. Rare are the instances of leave a penny, take a penny, although it must be said, here in Korea, the system of self-service in restaurants and the waiter counting the bottles of soju, beer, and cider on the table at the end of the meal versus keeping a running tab, is a welcome throwback. That said, although pen and paper and cursive writing still serve a purpose, what should we make of the honor system with the advent of ChatGPT, especially in the age of autocorrect and Grammarly?

Unless your Wifi is down or you are buried under midterms or final papers, the panic over ChatGPT cannot go unnoticed. As a semi-luddite wedded to my cell phone, I managed to ignore the chatter until I started to think not of the ramifications of students writing entire exams using the AI platform but whose actual problem it was to catch them. 

 According to Tech Target, 

“ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that uses natural language processing to create humanlike conversational dialogue. The language model can respond to       questions and compose various written content, including articles, social media posts, essays, code and emails.” 

These capabilities have sent the world of education into a tailspin as we wonder what this means for us as educators and the students as learners. I think I may have a controversial take on the answer.

Learning supplements are as old as time. Whether it be encyclopedias, tutors, or CliffsNotes study guides, students have always sought out assistance with their work. As educators, we are tasked with providing our students with the information required to complete a course. Great educators deliver a touch more, a little more information, a little more grounding, hopefully a little more inspiration. I would argue we are not in the business of policing. Students are going to student. If they want shortcuts and easy ways out, they will find it. ChatGPT is simply the latest iteration to cut corners.

Some would say I’m naïve, but I believe that educators should call out the most blatant misuse of AI and other helpers, but otherwise rely on the honor system. Obviously, young learners need to be trained in the satisfaction of creating and standing by their own work, as well as the understanding that cheating is not acceptable, but at the college level students should already understand that what they put into their college experience and their education is what they will get out. Some do and some simply do not care. They study to the test, want the grade, and want to be done with it. And frankly, that is not our problem as educators. We cannot spend our very limited time fretting over every new dazzling invention that tempts students to take the easy way.

 Taking a hands-off approach can be difficult, if not downright terrifying. One fear is that if students latch on to educational cheat sheets like ChatGPT, it will eventually lead to teachers being replaced like grocery clerks and customer service reps. But educators like Judy Yin, a professor at Korea National University of Education, say fretting is not worth the bother,

“AI can’t take your job. It can’t take over your job. It can’t take over mine, I’ll tell you that,” said Yin at the 30th annual KOTESOL conference held in Seoul the weekend of April 28th, 2023. She continued, “If AI can take your job, you’re not teaching you’re just translating. You need to be above it and control it.”

I agree. We need to understand AI and what useful elements it offers, do the work to educate our students and instill in them an appreciation for the various subjects they encounter throughout their college life, and then rely on the honor system. After all, they are young adults embarking on a lifetime of hard work and easy temptations. No matter how diligent, an educator does not have the ability or bandwidth to police every student who crosses our path. And more than that, it is not our job.