2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The integration of technology and innovative approaches in education have the potential to enhance the way engineering students learn. Today’s students benefit from technological advancements that allow them a variety of resources to aid in their academics. While these advancements have proven beneficial in their use as a tool for studying, they are limited by the users’ understanding and proficiency in using them. Therefore, it is essential to consider how students are using new technological advancements as an educational tool to ensure proper use that leads to strengthening the foundations for learning in engineering disciplines.

Recently OpenAI released ChatGPT which has sparked opposing opinions within academia regarding its role in the classroom and for assignments. Some may consider the use of AI such as ChatGPT to be cheating whereas others embrace the possibility for a deeper and more comprehensive learning among students. To gain a deeper understanding on the potential use of ChatGPT as a tool for students a series of assignments were given to an “Introduction to Engineering” undergraduate course that implemented the use of the AI chatbot as a resource.

In this study, students were first given an exam that required them to generate MATLAB code to create a plot with specific characteristics, using only the documentation within MATLAB as their resource. After receiving their graded exam, the students were given a laboratory assignment in which they interacted with ChatGPT to obtain feedback on their MATLAB exam. Qualitative data on the students’ experiences with the use of ChatGPT as a tool in studying were collected and analyzed. The results revealed that while students found the capabilities of ChatGPT intriguing, they remained skeptical in the output and reasoning given in regard to their MATLAB assignment.