HutchCC Students Navigate High Education in AI World

By Lizzie Rush
Editor In Chief
IG: liz.rush

In the evolving world of technology, it is safe to say that Artificial Intelligence is making its rounds and becoming one of the most used resources amongst individuals all over the world.

For example, one of the most popular AI websites, ChatGPT, has reported having more than 700 million weekly users, as of January, according to the OpenAI website.

While ChatGPT was once used to type in a prompt for the robot to spew out an essay for an English class, it appears college students are starting to find ways to incorporate AI into their schoolwork that is considered helpful rather than cheating.

The Hutchinson Community College student handbook under “Academic Honest and Appeal Policy & Procedure” states, “Use technology appropriately, including refraining from submitting AI (Artificial Intelligence)-generated work without express written consent from your instructor,” as well as “Plagiarism is the representation of words, ideas and other works that are not the student’s own as being original to the student. A non-inclusive list of examples includes work completed by someone else, work generated by an external entity (such as AI), omitting a citation for work used from another source, or borrowing the sequence of ideas, arrangement of material, and/or pattern of thought of work not produced by the student, even though it may be expressed in the student’s own words.”

In other words, HutchCC essentially says that if used correctly and with permission, students can use AI on assignments.

Minneapolis freshman Braxton Grimes is enrolled in a class where AI use is encouraged.

“Roy Johnson, my Personal Finance Instructor, has us use AI for all of our weekly assignments,” Grimes said. “We plop our test from Canvas into ChatGPT and the sheet he created, and it starts asking us questions into study and learn mode. The AI asks us the questions and creates two more questions on top of that.  So, in all, our 17-question test turns into 51 questions by the end of the ChatGPT session.”

Grimes said that AI can be beneficial when used in the right manner.

“I believe Roy has figured out how to use it to teach and not just have us use it to cheat on assignments,” Grimes said.

An anonymous HutchCC student stated that he used AI to help him better understand math concepts.

“I use AI to help me better understand math. That’s the only thing I use it for. It gives really good explanations for complex calculus problems,” he said.

While some students are OK with using AI, Burlington freshman Ty Steffens disagrees with the use of it.

“I feel like you are just cheating your way out of schoolwork. It is not your work, it’s a robot’s work” Steffens said. “I just don’t see the point in using it when I’m smart enough to live without it.”

Steffens doesn’t agree with certain classes allowing AI use and said it is enabling students to use it in other classes that don’t allow it.

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