Addressing the use of generative AI in academic writing

The rise of generative AI has been a major disruptive force in academia. Academics are concerned about its impact on student learning. Students can use generative AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, to complete many academic tasks on their behalf. This could lead to poor academic outcomes as students use ChatGPT to complete assessments, rather than engaging with the learning material. One particularly vulnerable academic activity is academic writing. This paper reports the results of an active learning intervention where ChatGPT was used by students to write an academic paper. The resultant papers were then analysed and critiqued by students to highlight the weaknesses of such AI-produced papers. The research used the Technology Acceptance Model to measure changing student perceptions about the usefulness and ease of use of ChatGPT in the creation of academic text. A statistical analysis indicates the intervention's impact on their behavioural intentions on using ChatGPT for academic writing.