| Course Subject: | Introduction to Business Analytics |
| Student Level: | Masters |
| Number of Students: | 170+ |
| Developed by: | Kwong Chan, Senior Academic Specialist, Marketing; Executive Director, DATA Initiative, D’Amore-McKim School of Business |
What Students Did
Analyzed a business situation–with the choice of using a generative AI tool or not–and posted their analysis on a discussion board. If generative AI was used, students were required to share the tool and the prompts that they used. They then read the responses that were posted, and, for those that were AI-generated, they were encouraged to try the use of a different AI tool to compare and contrast the results.
Learning Goals and Purpose
The purpose is to learn business case analysis skills in preparation for analysis of a case problem and analytics topics to be covered in the mid-term exam and to learn about the potential and limitations of generative AI tools.
Assessment
The discussion board posts are not graded as this activity is designed to prepare them for a later exam. Students are not permitted to use generative AI during the exam, and this is ensured by conducting the test via Respondus or pen and paper while present in the classroom session.
Faculty Reflections
When I did this activity before generative AI, I set a minimum word count minimum to ensure adequate depth of responses; now that students are using generative AI, I have to set a maximum word count to ensure that reading them is manageable. The students and I have noticed that the AI-generated responses are unoriginal and somewhat boring. I have noticed that those students who rely heavily on generative AI for the discussion board posts tend to perform poorly on the exam. They often are quite convinced of the validity of ChatGPT’s (and similar tools’) output, and use those answers on their exams. Because students are able to utilize the output from the tools without understanding the content or context, these exam grades are often lower.
Step-by-Step Student Instructions
| Step 1 | Analyze the provided business case and respond to the given prompt. You may use a generative AI tool such as Bard or ChatGPT to conduct your analysis if you’d like. If you use a tool, you must provide the prompt used.
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| Step 2 | Post your response on the discussion board. Respond to at least one other discussion post with a minimum of 100 words outlining what you liked or did not like about the topic or post. As part of a response to an AI-generated discussion post, you may try a different AI tool with a similar prompt. If you do this comparison, share your observations on how the different tools interpret the prompt. |
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