What Is the Impact of ChatGPT on Education? A Rapid Review of the Literature

Abstract

An artificial intelligence-based chatbot, ChatGPT, was launched in November 2022 and is capable of generating cohesive and informative human-like responses to user input. This rapid review of the literature aims to enrich our understanding of ChatGPT’s capabilities across subject domains, how it can be used in education, and potential issues raised by researchers during the first three months of its release (i.e., December 2022 to February 2023). A search of the relevant databases and Google Scholar yielded 50 articles for content analysis (i.e., open coding, axial coding, and selective coding). The findings of this review suggest that ChatGPT’s performance varied across subject domains, ranging from outstanding (e.g., economics) and satisfactory (e.g., programming) to unsatisfactory (e.g., mathematics). Although ChatGPT has the potential to serve as an assistant for instructors (e.g., to generate course materials and provide suggestions) and a virtual tutor for students (e.g., to answer questions and facilitate collaboration), there were challenges associated with its use (e.g., generating incorrect or fake information and bypassing plagiarism detectors). Immediate action should be taken to update the assessment methods and institutional policies in schools and universities. Instructor training and student education are also essential to respond to the impact of ChatGPT on the educational environment.