ChatGPT in the Classroom. Exploring Its Potential and Limitations in a Functional Programming Course

Abstract

In November 2022, OpenAI has introduced ChatGPT, a chatbot based on\nsupervised and reinforcement learning. Not only can it answer questions\nemulating human-like responses, but it can also generate code from scratch or\ncomplete coding templates provided by the user. ChatGPT can generate unique\nresponses which render any traditional anti-plagiarism tool useless. Its\nrelease has ignited a heated debate about its usage in academia, especially by\nstudents. We have found, to our surprise, that our students at POLITEHNICA\nUniversity of Bucharest (UPB) have been using generative AI tools (ChatGPT and\nits predecessors) for solving homework, for at least 6 months. We therefore set\nout to explore the capabilities of ChatGPT and assess its value for educational\npurposes. We solved all our coding assignments for the semester from our UPB\nFunctional Programming course. We discovered that, although ChatGPT provides\ncorrect answers in 68% of the cases, only around half of those are legible\nsolutions which can benefit students in some form. On the other hand, ChatGPT\nhas a very good ability to perform code review on student programming homework.\nBased on these findings, we discuss the pros and cons of ChatGPT in education.\n

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