The issue of artificial intelligence on college campuses is having a moment. First there was the viral article in New York Magazine last month: “Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College.” The New York Times reported on OpenAI (the firm behind ChatGPT)’s push to make AI as much a part of the college infrastructure as a student email account.
Where all this is going remains to be seen. But the issue at the core of these developments is the negative consequences of essentially outsourcing the task of learning — specifically, undermining the development of important, higher order skill sets like critical thinking and problem solving. “We’re talking about an entire generation of learning perhaps significantly undermined here,” said Brian Patrick Green in the New York Magazine article, director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. “It’s short-circuiting the learning process, and it’s happening fast.” Add to that the fact that student learning had already been undermined by the pandemic disruptions four and five years ago, when today’s college students were still in high school or even middle school.
The short-circuited student learning could have major ramifications for college students’ preparedness for the workforce once they graduate, and indeed the value of a degree. “Massive numbers of students are going to emerge from university with degrees, and into the workforce, who are essentially illiterate,” warns Troy Jollimore, professor of philosophy at Cal State Chico.
Data from the most recent survey for Winning the Issues (June 12-14; 1,000 registered voters) suggests voters already have concerns about graduates’ readiness for the workforce. Voters overall split 44-45 as to whether they believe or do not believe that Most college graduates today are ready to enter the workforce, with Republicans (40-52) and independents (37-51) particularly negative about graduates’ workforce readiness.
Much of this belief is informed by whether voters think a college degree relates to the skills a person has. Some 56% of voters already disagree The degree a person has earned is a clear indication of the skills he or she has (35-56 agree-disagree). Among those who disagree that a degree is a clear indicator of skills, 61% do not believe graduates are ready for work (28-61 believe-do not believe). Unlike the belief about workforce readiness, this disagreement cuts across party and level of education.
This should be a major concern for colleges and universities as a whole, as they are already dealing with a general public that is skeptical of the value of a college degree. If using AI outsources more of the learning process, which in theory results in the development of skills, then the disconnect between having a degree and workforce readiness will widen even further.
In an environment where the college diploma has in many cases become more prized than skills and knowledge that diploma represents, it is perhaps unsurprising that some students have opted to take a shortcut to that degree. Students cheated long before ChatGPT. But the widespread use of AI to short-circuit the learning process will cause other skill sets — those that employers tend to prize most and that colleges pride themselves in promoting — to stagnate in future college graduates. Ultimately, this will likely lead to a further erosion in the value proposition of higher education.
