Are You Using AI To Study? Here's How To Do It Well

(MENAFN- The Conversation) Artificial intelligence (AI) means high school and uni students now have access to a resource that can potentially“do all the work for them”. While this can reduce students' immediate stress in submitting assessments, it may negatively impact their long-term learning.

As high school and uni students enter the end-of-year exam period, they might look for ways to incorporate AI into their study practices.

I research the science of learning.

My recent research, suggests students need to master foundational knowledge and skills before they use AI to help their learning.

Is using AI for study worthwhile?

The field of research offers a mixed bag of responses.

One study suggests using AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, during study may boost learning, motivation, critical and creative thinking, and reduce mental effort.

Other reviews have pointed to the benefits of AI in tailoring learning to the individual, providing timely feedback, and enhancing student engagement.

But some researchers have questioned the credibility of these claims due to low-quality methods and lack of transparency of the previously-mentioned studies.

This doesn't necessarily mean students shouldn't use AI to study at all. But they need to be aware of the risks that come with it.

What to watch out for

One of these risks is“cognitive offloading”. This is when students become so reliant on AI completing their work that they let AI do the thinking for them entirely.

For students who offload to AI regularly, it can lead them to quit studying before they've truly mastered the content.

When you shouldn't use AI

This risk of“cognitive offloading” means you shouldn't use AI in every aspect of your revision, particularly when doing practice exams.

Research shows, when doing mock exams, it's best to recreate the conditions of what the actual exam will be. On most occasions, this means closing the laptop, putting the phone away, setting a timer to the exam's duration, and seeing what information you can retrieve and write independently.

If you do use AI to assist with practice exams it might give you a false sense of confidence. This is because AI can temporarily boost performance. But once you're faced with a real exam, you're likely to see performance collapse, which can reveal the true extent of your learning.

A Chinese study, published in June, looked at how high school students' use of AI impacted their overall learning. Findings showed students' AI use improved homework scores but also resulted in their monthly exam scores dropping about 20% within a period of six months.

So with this in mind, what are some ways you can use AI effectively to assist with study?

Using AI to revise

Before asking AI a study-related question, you should try to retrieve, explain, solve, summarise, or write concepts yourself.

Once you've proven you can correctly recall content on your own, you might use AI to organise your notes and identify anything missing in them. If you'd like to extend yourself, you can use AI to generate practice exam questions that gradually become more challenging. You might prompt it to:

Using AI for feedback

Perhaps you have just finished writing a practice essay, or you've answered a series of short answer questions. Now you're looking to see how you went.

You can use AI to:

offer personalised feedback

simplify your explanations

fact-check your work

provide counterarguments and alternative explanations.

A prompt you might use could be:

Striking a healthy balance

Even when you're not doing practice exams, it's good to put devices away and give yourself extended periods of study without any tech. An added benefit is that you will not be distracted by notifications from devices too.

If you're tired of studying alone, and are needing human connection, you might consider meeting up with friends in a small group to prepare for exams. While AI may sometimes be helpful, giving and receiving feedback from other people can test and engage you in ways technology cannot.

And when in doubt, a good principle to remember is: think first, use AI second (or, in some cases, not at all).

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