OpenAI has released Study Mode for ChatGPT to help students learn instead of just getting answers. When users turn on this feature, ChatGPT will ask questions to check understanding. In some cases, the tool will not give a direct answer until the student engages with the material. Study Mode is available now to Free, Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers who log in to ChatGPT. Support for the Edu plans will follow soon. Those accounts often serve entire schools under administrator licenses.
A Response to Classroom Concerns
Teachers and parents have worried that AI tools can weaken critical thinking. In one study, researchers discovered that essay authors using AI had reduced brain activity compared to researchers’ writers. Kicking off, ChatGPT was banned in many districts. Despite these reports, by 2023, some schools had lifted the ban and started to understand how to teach using AI.
OpenAI says Study Mode is one way to guide students toward deeper learning. The company notes that a similar feature called Learning Mode is available in Anthropic’s Claude chatbot.
How Study Mode Works
When Study Mode is on, ChatGPT may begin by asking a user what they already know. It may subsequently give them some quizzes on primary ideas. The full solution will only be shared after the user proves to work or when they answer a couple of guiding questions and the AI provides a full solution. It is a dialogic technique in that it reflects the give and take of the actual tutor session.
Any student who would like to go through the process can effortlessly shift to normal ChatGPT. Finding itself in the same boat as ChatGPT and being on the receiving end of parental and press backlash around its use, OpenAI tells Ars it might investigate parental or admin locks later, but does not intend to impose Study Mode on youth users.
Benefits and Limits
Study Mode can assist in maintaining a high level of participation of the students in the learning process. It can take them along a complicated proof or make them think about some essay prompt. This can develop more memory as well as stronger reasoning. Regularly, though, the feature will depend on student buy-in. Users can easily take the low road and disable it.
Teachers have not yet mastered how to teach digital responsibility. Study Mode is an initiative that is moving towards AI as a learning companion, not a solution. OpenAI will also track its usage and publish outcomes of how students learn to evolve with AI tools. Such an update can be seen as a move to strike a balance between AI support and actual skill development in learning.
