Welcome to the Academic AI. I am Professor Timothy Hack, and today I will show you how to use Jet GPT or other large language models to grade papers and generate feedback responsibly.
First and foremost, be responsible and inform your students that you will be using AI to enhance your comments and feedback. Make sure to post an announcement in your learning management system and include a statement in your syllabus.
Also, be mindful that AI’s output should not be used as an end unto itself. You always need to read your students’ work and review the AI-produced comments to ensure accuracy and clarity.
ChatGPT can produce erroneous or unusual comments from time to time, so it’s important to be responsible.
To get started, you will first need to download ChatGPT or another large language model app. You can find a listing of AI tools and apps at Exploria.
Once you’ve downloaded ChatGPT, open it and click on ‘New Chat’ in the top left corner. Then, open your learning management system and open the assignment you want to grade and review the student submission.
Today, we’ll be using Canvas. You will want to name your conversation so you can easily find it and use it in future semesters. Here, I simply wrote the title in the input box and clicked enter. You can always rename it by using the edit feature, the little pencil icon circled on the top left.
Now it’s time to add the prompt. My favorite prompt is listed here: ‘Act as an encouraging professor, grade and evaluate the student submission. Use specific examples from the submission when evaluating and offer suggestions for improvement.’
Following the prompt, include the assignment description or any other information that can help the AI learn the context of the assignment. You can simply cut and paste the information from your LMS or from a digital document you have stored.
I like to put an assignment description, followed by a colon and quotation marks. If you are using a rubric, cut and paste it into the prompt after the assignment. You can simply click Ctrl+A to select all on your LMS webpage, then click Ctrl+C to copy the information, followed by Ctrl+V to paste it into the prompt box. It may look messy, but the AI is adept at reading sloppy pasted rubrics and text.
Now it’s time to cut and paste the student’s work into the prompt bar. Go to your learning management system and click Ctrl+A on the student’s work, then click Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste it into the prompt box.
At that point, you will hit the green arrow and press enter. You will wait about three seconds, sometimes a little longer, and the result will pop up. The results are often impressive and will sometimes identify flaws in the student’s work that you may have missed in your original reading.
However, you do need to review them for clarity and accuracy. ChatGPT can often grade students’ work harshly, provide unnecessary suggestions for improvement, or miss the mark altogether in regards to scoring grades.
As you can see, the rubric scoring, the comments, and the feedback and suggestions for improvement are impressive. Review the feedback and edit where appropriate. I often add information or comments and routinely eliminate comments that I find irrelevant or wrong.
If you find the response not to your liking, click ‘Regenerate’ and see what the second response notes. Once you like the response you’re getting, you can simply cut and paste the student’s paper into the prompt box in perpetuity. The results will follow.
Remember your role as an ethical educator. Be responsible and inform your students that you will be using ChatGPT or other large language models to enhance your comments and feedback.
