A Preliminary Exploration of the Disruption of a Generative AI Systems: Faculty/Staff and Student Perceptions of ChatGPT and its Capability of Completing Undergraduate Engineering Coursework

Abstract: The authors of this study aim to assess the capabilities of the OpenAI ChatGPT tool to understand just how effective such a system might be for students to utilize in their studies as well as deepen understanding of faculty/staff and student perceptions about ChatGPT in general. The purpose of what is learned from the study is to continue the design of a model to facilitate the development of faculty for becoming adept at embracing change, the DANCE model (Designing Adaptations for the Next Changes in Education). This model is used in this study to help faculty with examining the impact that a disruptive new tool, such as ChatGPT, can pose for the learning environment. The authors analyzed the performance of ChatGPT used to complete course assignments at a variety of levels by novice engineering students working as research assistants. Those completed works have been assessed by the faculty who created those assignments to understand how these completed assignments might compare with the performance of a typical student. A set of surveys conducted by the authors of this work are discussed where students, faculty, and staff respondents in March of 2023 addressed their perceptions of ChatGPT (A follow-up survey is being administered now, February 2024). These survey instruments were analyzed, and the data visualized in this work to bring attention to relevant findings by the researchers. This work reports the findings of the researchers with the purpose of sharing the current state of this work at Texas A&M University with the intention to provide insights to scholars both at our own institution and around the world. This work is not intended to be a finished work but reports these findings with full transparency that this work is currently continuing as the researchers gather new data and develop and validate various measurement instruments.