A recent survey by Intelligent.com, a well-known higher-education planning platform, has found that students and parents are increasingly favoring ChatGPT over human tutors. The survey results reveal a significant shift in student attitudes towards educational assistance with a staggering 85% of high school and college students asserting that ChatGPT surpasses traditional tutoring in effectiveness. Similarly, 96% of parents with school-age children share this view, convinced that studying with ChatGPT generates superior outcomes for their children.
The Rise of ChatGPT
The survey, which compiled feedback from 3,017 high school and college students and 3,234 parents of younger students, reveals that a remarkable 39% of students and 30% of parents have completely replaced their tutoring sessions with ChatGPT. Parents surveyed affirm that ChatGPT’s capability to rectify errors facilitates a more accurate learning experience for their children. They also report that their children prefer using the software for oral practice, resulting in significantly improved outcomes.
According to Diane Gayeski, higher-education consultant at Intelligent.com and professor of strategic communications at Ithaca College, “Students and their parents believe ChatGPT is a highly effective study tool that is more convenient and efficient than traditional tutoring, to the extent that many have actually replaced tutoring sessions in favor of ChatGPT.” She further adds, “Parents find ChatGPT to be an attractive tutor because it’s free, always available and answers questions quickly. It’s quite good at providing basic concepts and even practice questions on common topics such as algebra, geography, and foreign languages.”
The Benefits and Limitations of ChatGPT
The survey findings underscore that upon integrating ChatGPT into their study routine, 95% of student and parent respondents have witnessed improvement in academic grades. ChatGPT predominantly substituted tutoring sessions in subjects like mathematics and “hard” sciences such as chemistry and biology. This is because these subjects tend to be technical and the concepts more difficult, and ChatGPT can present clear, distilled answers for these types of problems, which can help students grasp complex concepts.
Despite ChatGPT’s popularity, experts widely believe that it will not serve as a long-term, complete substitute for tutors in the near term. “ChatGPT cannot do what experienced human tutors do because it’s reliant on the user entering good prompts,” explains Gayeski. “They know what questions to ask to assess a learner’s grasp of the content, and they can diagnose students’ misconceptions and provide specific feedback.”
Gayeski emphasized that human tutors possess valuable knowledge regarding the types of questions commonly encountered in standardized tests and an understanding of what specific teachers within their school district expect from assignments. While 95% of surveyed students and parents reported improved grades since incorporating ChatGPT into their studying routines, a human tutor plays a vital role in providing structure. Gayeski compares this to personal trainers at a gym, where the appointment provides positive feedback and encouragement from the trainer that can foster persistence.
Conclusion
The Intelligent.com survey reveals a clear shift in student and parent attitudes towards educational assistance, with ChatGPT emerging as a preferred alternative to human tutors. While ChatGPT has its benefits, it is not a complete substitute for human tutors in the near term, and students and parents must recognize the limitations of relying solely on AI-powered platforms for their educational needs.
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