AI in the workgroup: ‘The moment I give students an assignent, they browse to ChatGPT’
AI
In the ‘Educatips’ column, Psychology lecturers share their most important insights about teaching. This month: Ambra Brizi uses AI to encourage students to reflect and think more critically. ‘What are the limitations, and what is the potential of this technology?’
A heated argument last year sparked Brizi’s inspiration for her project. A group of students in her Organisational Management course clashed over a team assignment. . ‘He’s not pulling his weight,’ one student complained, referring to a peer. ‘All he does is use ChatGPT to generate models.’ Brizi asked for clarification. ‘It’s true,’ the student admitted without hesitation. ‘I’m using ChatGPT for this task – but so is everyone else.’ The incident got Brizi thinking. ‘Our university doesn’t yet have clear guidelines on AI use. We can ban it outright or permit it under certain conditions – but what exactly would that look like? I felt it was the right time to reflect on how we use AI in our courses. What are its strengths and weaknesses? And how can we use it in a constructive, positive way?’
AI as a mirror
Brizi developed an educational intervention exploring AI’s role in the classroom: AI Chatbot as a mirror. Her initiative secured a Grassroots grant. Using the programming language Python, she designed an AI extension that ingests academic papers assigned for seminar discussions. ‘I can ask the AI questions, which it responds based on the assigned readings. I can also request the AI to generate exercises based on the material or solve an organisational problem using the literature.’ Without informing them in advance, Brizi then presents students with AI-generated responses. ‘I want to see whether they can come up with alternative solutions and how their answers compare with AI’s.’
Grading AI
Brizi has noticed a shift: gone are the days when students furtively used ChatGPT, screen brightness dimmed to avoid detection. ‘Now, the moment I give them an assignment, I see them turning straight to ChatGPT. They use it for all sorts of things.’ They are also more vocal and explicit to her about it. ‘I’ll set a task to design an advertisment, , I see them generating colour schemes and text with AI.’ That is precisely why she believes it is crucial to consider AI’s impact on learning. ‘When we assess students’ work, we don’t always know which parts we are assessing – their own effort or AI’s output. We shouldn’t be in a position where we’re grading AI.’With her intervention, Brizi hopes to determine which assignments benefit from AI and which require uniquely human thinking.
Start of the project
From November 2025, she will roll out the intervention in selected seminar groups. To prepare, she is organising focus groups where students can openly discuss AI’s role in their studies. She will also distribute a questionnaire at the beginning and end of the next academic year to assess the intervention’s impact.
Share your educa-tip?
Are you a lecturer at the Institute of Psychology and do you want to tell colleagues about how you teach? Or would you like to nominate an inspiring colleague for the next column? You can send a mail to news.psy@fsw.leidenuniv.nl putting ‘Educatip’ in the subject field.
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