Courtesy of Liz Yap/Education Week

Dear Commons Community,

Yesterday, OpenAI, the research laboratory that created ChatGPT, unveiled a new “study mode” feature. The new feature aims to turn the popular generative artificial-intelligence app from an answer engine into a personal tutor.  As reported in Education Week.

“Learning requires friction, it takes effort, curiosity, and grappling with ideas,” said Leah Belsky, the vice president and general manager of education at OpenAI, during a July 28 press briefing. “So the question on our minds as we built this product was, how can we guide students toward using AI in ways that encourage true, deeper learning? How do we make it easier and more intuitive for them to use ChatGPT in this way?”

ChatGPT, an AI-powered tool that can hold humanlike conversations and instantly answer seemingly any prompt, and other similar tools have become a headache for some K-12 teachers, who see generative AI as a way for students to easily cheat on assignments or circumvent learning. Skeptics have also raised concerns about the technology’s potential effects on people’s cognitive skills.

Still, generative AI experts have touted the technology’s potential to transform K-12 education into a more personalized learning experience for students.

The ChatGPT study mode is “the first step” in ensuring that there is “real learning” happening when students are using AI tools, Belsky said.

Nick Phillips, a math teacher at Trinity High School in Washington, Pa., said it’s “awesome” for OpenAI to add this feature.

“If a student can [have scaffolding] without having the teacher there,” Phillips said, “then that can be helpful for a lot of students that maybe just need a little bit more of a step-by-step process or just a study partner.”

ChatGPT’s study mode feature would have been nice to have from the beginning, he said, but it’s a good signal that OpenAI is adjusting its features based on students’ and teachers’ needs.

The new ChatGPT feature is especially useful for homework help, test prep, and learning new topics, according to OpenAI. However, ChatGPT isn’t the first generative AI tool to have a feature that guides students to get to the answer on their own, revise an essay, or have their own personalized tutor. Other ed-tech companies have also launched student-focused AI features. For example, the nonprofit Khan Academy launched Khanmigo, a personalized tutor for students, in 2023. And big AI platforms such as Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot can be prompted to guide users to learn rather than just spitting out an answer.

How does the ChatGPT study mode feature work?

With ChatGPT study mode, students can type in a question and ChatGPT will respond with interactive prompts to promote active learning. It will also reply with scaffolded responses to help students make connections with topics they already know. It can also provide quizzes, open-ended questions, and other ways to test and apply the students’ new knowledge.

For instance, a student could go to the ChatGPT study mode and ask it to help understand what positive and negative feedback loops mean in biology. ChatGPT study mode would then ask a few introductory questions (What grade level are you in? Have you seen these topics before? What’s your goal in learning this topic?) to help gauge the student’s current understanding and continue guiding or teaching from there.

The technology is designed to keep helping the student get to the answer, even if the student prompts it to give them the answer. (Though, of course, the student can also just switch off study mode and get to the answer more quickly. There are currently no guardrails against that, according to OpenAI.)

“When students use study mode, they’re met with guiding questions, and an experience that is customized to that level,” said Abhi Muchhal, who’s on OpenAI’s product team, during the press briefing. “This is intentional because we want this to be learner-led and [for it to] figure out what is the right thing that each learner is optimizing for and then customize the response according to that.”

The feature was designed with college students in mind, but is fully accessible for high school students, too, according to OpenAI. It was created in collaboration with teachers, cognitive scientists, and pedagogy experts to reflect “behaviors that support deeper learning,” the company said in its press release.

Study mode is available for all ChatGPT users, whether they’re using the platform’s free version or one of its paid options. Users can access the feature by selecting the “study and learn” option from the tools in the ChatGPT interface. Those within the ChatGPT Edu version, OpenAI’s product for education geared mostly for higher education, will get the feature “in the coming weeks,” the company said.

How will this feature affect K-12?

Glenn Kleiman, a senior adviser at Stanford University’s graduate school of education, said the feature is generally “a good thing that should help educators,” but without having tried it, he mostly has questions: If it was designed for a college-age user, then is it also appropriate for younger students who end up using it? How well does it really work at engaging students’ deeper learning and incorporating the craft of good teaching?

“These are unknowns at this point,” he said.

ChatGPT study mode has the same age restrictions as the normal version: anyone 13 or older can use it; those ages 13 to 17 need parental consent before using the app, according to OpenAI. The study mode also has the same safeguards when it comes to the creation of explicit, illegal, or harmful content, according to OpenAI. (There have been reports of people using ChatGPT for harm or even self-harm.)

OpenAI has also partnered with various researchers to study and share how its tools influence learning outcomes.

“We intend to publish a deeper analysis of what we’ve learned about the links between model design and cognition, shape future product experiences based on these insights, and work side by side with the broader education ecosystem to ensure AI benefits learners worldwide,” the company said in a press release.

Phillips, who encourages his students to use AI to check their work or for help getting unstuck on a complicated math problem, said the only concern he has is the same concern he’s had about generative AI tools from the get-go: the technology’s tendency to get things wrong.

“You’d better be pretty confident it’s going to give you correct answers,” he said.

It would probably be a good idea for teachers to try it out and figure out its capabilities and limitations, which they can then show their students, Phillips said.

Tony