After coming back from a small hiatus in Fall 2024, I slowly realized that AI has become a very big part of education these days. My peers seem to finish assignments at a much faster rate than I do, and it makes me feel left behind. Though it does not make me feel good comparatively, that is a big benefit to using Artificial Intelligence: it can get things done quickly. When taking ICS 314 during the Spring 2025 semester, I only used a little bit of ChatGPT towards the end, and in hindsight, it did not make me feel good. So the question I want to ask is: Is using AI in education worth it?
Experience WODs
I did not use AI when doing the experience WODs because I felt like it would defeat the purpose of learning the content if I were to use it.
In-class Practice WODs
I did not use AI when doing the in-class practice WODs because I felt like it would defeat the purpose of learning the content if I were to use it.
In-class WODs
I did not use AI when doing the in-class practice WODs because I felt like it would defeat the purpose of learning the content of I were to use AI. Though in the end, I ended up getting a DNF for the majority of the WODs in the semester. I do not regret it because I did not see the point of using AI to do the WOD for me since I will not learn anything at the end, I also knew beforehand that the grade will not make me feel better, and that is speaking from a previous experience.
Essays
I did not use AI when writing any of the essays because to me, essays (in this context) are a way to get YOUR own words and thoughts to the world, and using AI defeats that purpose, since AI is not you. I also see essays as a way to flex how you put words on paper for others to see, and that itself is a challenge because you would want others to understand what you are trying to say.
Final Project
The final project is the first and last instance I decided to use AI in the semester. In my group’s Campus Plate Mate Project, I was tasked to do the sign in page, and my group member wanted me to do a slider form that contains both the sign in and sign up functionality. The code given to me by my group mate was complicated, in my opinion, and since I was in a time crunch to do it, I decided to use ChatGPT. In ChatGPT, I basically posted the link to the slider form and asked it to implement it in React Bootstrap. Looking back at it now, I still think that was so bad and made me feel really guilty. I did not learn anything as I just copy and pasted without trying to understand the code it was giving me. The only benefit I gained is that it saved me a lot of time and and reduced my stress levels. But is not using my critical thinking skills worth it? I do not think so.
Learning a Concept / Tutorial
I did not use AI when learning concepts or doing a tutorial because I felt like it would defeat the purpose of learning the content if I were to use it.
Answering a Question in Class or in Discord
The questions I would answer in Discord are questions that are asked by my group members in our personal team chat for the Final Project. When answering, I would answer with only the knowledge I know, and if I needed to look up something real quick, I would either reference my own work from previous assignments, look at the solution videos of the experience WODs, or look at a forum post from something like StackOverflow. No AI used due to the same reasons stated previously.
Asking ot Answering a Smart-Question
I did not ask or answer a queestion in the smart-questions channel in the Discord so this sub-section does not apply to me.
Coding Example
I did not use AI when asking for code examples because I felt like it would defeat the purpose of learning if I were to use it.
Explaining Code
I did not use AI to explain code for me because I felt like it would defeat the purpose of learning the content if I were to use it. Though, I am near-constantly reasoning with myself that I should maybe use AI to tell or explain to me, “What does __ do in this line of code here?” , since I am not exactly asking AI to do someting for me, but trying to use it as a resource to help me understand the material.
Writing the Code
I did not use AI to write code for me because I felt like it would defeat the purpose of learning the content if I were to use it.
Documenting Code
I did not use AI to document code because I felt like it would defeat the purpose of learning how to if I were to use it. And admittedly, I did not do as much code documentation as I should have.
Quality Assurance
I did not use AI for quality assurance because I felt like the things VSCode and ESLint were doing by default were good enough.
Other Uses in ICS 314 Not Listed
I rarely used AI in ICS 314, so nothing.
I barely used AI this semester, my one usage of AI was during the final project, and the number one thing I got out of that experience was that I did not do anything, AI did a task that I should have done. In this situation, I outsourced my thinking to ChatGPT and when you think about it, it is kind of scary. That being my first heavy AI usage, I was honestly quite amazed at what it was able to accomplish, but a little sad as well because what would be the point of programmers, especially those at the junior level, if AI can do it so easily?
Looking back, I definitely could have used ChatGPT to break down the implementation of the slider form one-by-one instead of having it do it for me, but I was overly stressed and time was ticking away. Thus, that will definitely be an experience I will remember going forward.
Over the past school year, I noticed that AI has become really big when it comes to generating images and videos. In one hand, if used for entertainment and for things that are not too serious, I personally see nothing wrong with it (in this aspect). But on the other hand, in the real world perspective, I could see artists losing their jobs if these big companies decide to use AI to make their artistic products instead of commisioninng artists to get those things. I personally really respect those in the art indust ry, so I could definitely see a problem with AI in that regard.
For real-world software engineering challenges, I could see AI being real useful when a particular situation is not too burdened by a bunch of specifics. I think that would be the strength of humans over AI, to be able to understand how the specifics can alter a problem you are handling and to adjust accordingly. Though, I could definitely see this as being less of a problem as AI gets more advanced.
The number one challenge I see with regards to using AI in this course is how to not have AI do all the coding students have to do. I say this is a challenge because it is really hard to stop someone from getting an answer quickly, and that is what AI is doing for students (in my opinion). “Why think so hard when AI can do it so much faster?” This is a question that, I think, will be really hard to balance along with actually learning and understanding material. Though, I can see AI being a really powerful tool if asking the right questions, such as: “Why does blank do blank?”, etc.
The biggest benefit that, I think, AI-enhanced teaching methods have over the traditional approaches is that things can be done a lot more quicker with the help of AI, and if used correctly, can potentially speed up the learning process as well. For traditional methods, I could see the knowledge retention be more deep since it is possibly more hands-on, and thus, have actual skills developed since you know, AI is not doing everything for you. (Hmm…I think I might be biased against AI, can you tell?)
In my opinion, I hope the use of AI in education is a bit more regulated in the future because I feel like AI is taking away our ability to think. Artifical Intelligence should be used as a tool to aid us in our learning, and not as something that replaces our biggest advantage as human beings. That being said, I could imagine that it would be very hard to regulate as AI is the new big thing in the current technological world, where we as people want things to be done quick and easy.
Generally (if it was not obvious already), I am against heavy (keyword: heavy) usage of AI in the Software Engineering Course and in the ICS courses. If you use it to generate code or the answers to your homework, you are taking away the entire point of learning and losing your ability to think. I feel like as students in the Computer Science field, we should definitely strive to be better than AI, which will come with its stress and struggles, but will be worth it in the end.
To answer the question, “Is using AI in education worth it?”: I think it entirely depends on how you use it. Of course it is not worth it if you are using it to do your assignment for you. To get the most out of AI, I think it is best to ask it questions such as “What does ___ do in this line of code?”, as you are not just copy and pasting your entire homework in the prompt, but rather just doing a quick fact check to understand how a small thing works in order to broaden your knowledge.
In a nutshell, do not let Artificial Intelligence take away your human advantage to critically think!