Abstract:

In an age of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI), undergraduate students face complex decisions: should they use Gen AI to facilitate specific tasks in their studies? If so, where is the proverbial line that should not be crossed? While many experts suggest that the academic essay is dead and the need for Academic Writing (AW) courses is naught, we counter all of those arguments by speaking with the undergraduate students themselves. Like technology that preceded it (computers, the Internet, Wikipedia, social media, etc.), students have jumped blindly into this new era with no real guidance or training. Despite calls for training on Gen AI tools, scholars have yet to define what that training would entail. When trying to measure the effects of Gen AI on skills such as critical thinking, researchers have simply asked students to self-evaluate. Students seem to believe their critical thinking skills have improved, but what do their professors see? Are the grades better? Are the students writing deeper, more reflective pieces? More importantly, what constitutes student work, percentage of Gen AI or a fully original piece of work? It seems Gen AI has led to many more questions than solutions for HEIs.

To our knowledge, no study has combined a clear definition of critical thinking with the specific AW tasks students complete using Gen AI to improve critical thinking skills. Thus, we need to move backward and start from the beginning. How do undergraduate students use Gen AI in HEIs? What is acceptable use?

In this paper, we focus on the role of Gen AI in HEIs in the 21st century. This paper presents the initial results of Phase 1: Defining how Gen AI is used in AW. We surveyed 143 students in one hospitality business school in Switzerland and conducted a focus group of eight undergraduate students.

Based on their responses, we address the following three research questions:
RQ1: What is the current status quo for using Gen AI in HEI undergraduate studies?
RQ2: How are undergraduate students using Gen AI in their courses?
RQ3: What are the perceived benefits and challenges of the use of Gen AI?

When analyzing the results, we have found (unsurprisingly) that the vast majority of HEI undergraduates use Gen AI ‘sometimes’ or ‘always’ in the AW tasks. Only three students claimed to have never used Gen AI in their studies. The two most common uses are the ‘check grammar/language’ and ‘do the referencing list’. When asked what Gen AI use is acceptable for AW, ‘improving my writing’ was the most popular response. From the focus groups, we were able to delve deeper into the acceptable uses of Gen AI, with students citing academic support, such as summarizing reading, and professional tasks, such as drafting CVs. They named perceived benefits, expectations, and challenges. For instance, the challenges included hallucinations, inaccuracies, and ethical issues: All students in the focus group voiced concerns about plagiarism or cheating accusations and the penalties they could incur. Our results confirm the literature whilst also presenting original concerns that have arisen as Gen AI becomes more popular. We are convinced that Gen AI can be used in today’s AW courses to improve critical thinking skills, and this project will aim to offer concrete solutions for how to do so.

Keywords:

Generative AI, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), undergraduate students, business school, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).