Loading...
ChatGPT in public policy teaching and assessment: An examination of opportunities and challenges
Casey, Daniel
Casey, Daniel
Author
Abstract
This paper presents the findings of an innovative assessment task that required students to use ChatGPT for drafting a policy brief to an Australian Government minister. The study explores how future public policy students perceive ChatGPT's role in both public policy and teaching and assessment. Through self-reflective essays and focus group discussions, the research looks at the limitations of ChatGPT that the students identified, demonstrating it struggles to produce analytically sound, politically responsive, and nuanced policy recommendations. The findings align with the “technoscepticism” theoretical frame, indicating concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) tools could undermine good policy analysis processes. The students supported greater use of ChatGPT in the classroom, to increase ChatGPT-literacy, help students learn to engage ethically and appropriately with AI tools, and better develop evaluative judgement skills.
The paper contributes insights into the intersection of ChatGPT, teaching and assessment, and public policy and seeks to prompt further exploration and discussion on the implications of integrating ChatGPT into both public policy and its education and assessment.
Points for practitioners:
Future public service graduates are highly sceptical about the value of ChatGPT for developing policy.
They are concerned about the ethical implications, the lack of transparency, and the impact it may have on marginalised communities.
Keywords
AI literacy, assessment design, ChatGPT, public policy education, technoscepticism
Date
2024
Type
Article
Journal
Australian Journal of Public Administration
Book
Volume
Issue
Page Range
1-15
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Arts and Humanities
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Gold open access
License
CC BY-NC 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International)
File Access
Notes
© 2024 The Authors. Australian Journal of Public Administration published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Institute of Public Administration Australia.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.