Date
Publisher
arXiv
ChatGPT has been increasingly used in computer science, offering efficient support across software development tasks. While it helps students navigate programming challenges, its use also raises concerns about academic integrity and overreliance. Despite growing interest in this topic, prior research has largely relied on surveys, emphasizing trends over in-depth analysis of students' strategies and ethical awareness. This study complements existing work through a qualitative investigation of how computer science students in one UK institution strategically and ethically engage with ChatGPT in software development projects. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, it explores two key questions: How do computer science students ethically and strategically report using ChatGPT in software development projects? How do students understand and perceive the ethical issues associated with using ChatGPT in academic and professional contexts? Findings reveal a shift in students' learning models, moving from traditional "independent thinking-manual coding-iterative debugging" to "AI-assisted ideation-interactive programming-collaborative optimization." Importantly, many use ChatGPT conversationally to deepen understanding, while consciously reserving creative and high-level decision-making tasks for themselves. Students tend to cap ChatGPT's contribution to roughly 30%, and evaluate its output to mitigate overreliance. However, only a minority thoroughly analyze AI-generated code, raising concerns about reduced critical engagement. Meanwhile, students reject uncredited use, highlight risks such as privacy breaches and skill degradation, and call for clear usage guidelines set by their teachers. This research offers novel insights into the evolving learner-AI dynamic and highlights the need for explicit guidance to support responsible and pedagogically sound use of such tools.
Study at a glance
- Question: How do computer science students use ChatGPT in software development projects and understand its ethical issues?
- Setting and data: Computer science students at one UK institution.
- Method: Semi-structured interviews.
Why it matters
ChatGPT helps students navigate programming challenges, but raises concerns about academic integrity and overreliance. Prior research has largely relied on surveys, emphasizing trends over in-depth analysis of students' strategies and ethical awareness.
Key findings
- At a UK university, computer science students reported shifting from manual coding to using ChatGPT for interactive ideation while reserving creative decisions for themselves.
- Students reported limiting ChatGPT's contribution to roughly 30% to avoid overreliance, though only a minority thoroughly analyzed the AI-generated code.
- Students rejected uncredited AI use, highlighted risks of skill degradation and privacy breaches, and called for clear usage guidelines from their teachers.
Summary drafted with AI from the paper’s abstract and may contain errors. See the full paper for details.
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