Case Study #4: ChatGPT for Content Development and Critical Engagement at SUNY Farmingdale

Assistant Professor of Environmental Anthropology and Archaeology Cory Look (SUNY Farmingdale) evaluated ChatGPT’s capabilities as a support tool for academic instruction, primarily using a thorough literature review, as this most popular AI tool has already garnered substantial research attention. ChatGPT demonstrated greater utility in generating draft content, summarizing readings, and explaining complex ideas at varying levels of difficulty. Its strengths were most evident in economics and creative writing. Students appreciated the immediacy of its feedback and its ability to scaffold learning through low-stakes dialogue. Look emphasized that ChatGPT works best with well-structured prompts that specify the desired format, tone, and level of detail.

However, the review highlights significant limitations. ChatGPT has a well-documented tendency to generate plausible but inaccurate information, posing challenges in educational contexts where accuracy is paramount. While its multimodal capabilities—such as image generation, voice interaction, and data visualization—offer new affordances, they also increase the risk of unverified or misleading outputs. Ethical concerns include data privacy, potential bias, and environmental impact. For instance, while OpenAI claims to anonymize data, its collection practices have raised questions about transparency and compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Look noted that the tool’s strengths are most pronounced when students and instructors use it critically—reviewing, editing, and contextualizing its outputs rather than accepting them at face value. ChatGPT can support content generation and ideation but should be used to supplement, not substitute, core cognitive work. As such, effective use requires clear instructional framing, ongoing oversight, and ethical guidance from faculty.