Evaluating the impact of ChatGPT on student performance in academic writing

Understanding how Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT can be useful for students and educators is essential as AI is being integrated into our everyday lives and is shaping educational practices and can enhance student learning. This study investigated whether the use of ChatGPT helped students write their essays better. Data were collected from 21 undergraduate students at a UK university. All participants were required to write two essays: one with the use of ChatGPT and one without the use of ChatGPT. They were given 25 minutes to write each essay. The results indicated that there was a difference in the quality and structure of the essays which led to a higher grade for essays where ChatGPT was used. Students who used AI for their first essay also scored higher in the second essay where they did not use AI. These results aligned with our hypotheses that students would score higher grades when writing essays with the help of ChatGPT, and that students who used ChatGPT for the first essay would score higher in the second essay which was without the use of ChatGPT. The findings provide insights on the usefulness of ChatGPT and how its further development can enhance student learning experiences. The study signifies the importance and reliability of AI tools like ChatGPT in the education sector.

© International Journal of Technology in Education (IJTE). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).