How college students use ChatGPT

Nagham M. Mohammad; Matthew Demers; Erin McCubbin; Jackson Mitchell; Sara M. Fulmer

doi:10.29333/pr/17428

Full Text (PDF)

Nagham M. Mohammad ¹ ^* , Matthew Demers ¹ , Erin McCubbin ¹ , Jackson Mitchell ¹ , Sara M. Fulmer ¹

More Detail

¹ University of Guelph, CANADA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT become more accessible, it is increasingly important for educators to understand how students use these technologies. Despite the growing presence of AI in higher education, there is limited research examining how students report using these tools in both academic and personal contexts. This study investigates student engagement with AI, focusing on usage patterns, academic applications, and student perceptions. Of the 1265 University of Guelph students surveyed, 86.4% reported using AI tools. Students primarily used AI for academic support, including explaining concepts, solving homework problems, and clarifying assignment expectations. Many students, however, reported avoiding AI due to concerns about academic integrity. Only 29 students indicated facing consequences for using AI in contexts where it was either prohibited or not clearly permitted. Beyond coursework, students also used AI for general research, skill development, and non-academic writing tasks. Overall, perceptions of AI’s impact on learning were mixed, with nearly equal proportions of students reporting positive and negative effects.

Keywords

GenAI
GPT
ChatGPT
python
university

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

PEDAGOGICAL RES, Volume 10, Issue 4, October 2025, Article No: em0250

https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/17428

Publication date: 18 Nov 2025

Article Views: 7

Article Downloads: 5

Open Access References How to cite this article

References

Abdullahi, Y., Pervin, N., & Román-González, M. (2024). Generative AI and the future of higher education: A threat to academic integrity or reformation? Evidence from multicultural perspectives. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 21, Article 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-024-00453-6
AIinHE. (2024). Students’ perspectives on AI in higher education: 2024 HEDx Future Solutions Conference insights. https://aiinhe.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/aiinhe_surveyinsights.pdf
An, Y., Yu, J.H. & James, S. (2025). Investigating the higher education institutions’ guidelines and policies regarding the use of generative AI in teaching, learning, research, and administration. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 22, Article 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-025-00507-3
Baidoo-Anu, D., & Ansah, L. (2023). Education in the era of generative artificial intelligence (AI): Understanding the potential benefits of ChatGPT in promoting teaching and learning. SSRN. http://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4337484
Brown, T. B., Mann, B., Ryder, N., Subbiah, M., Kaplan, J., Dhariwal, P., Neelakantan, A., Shyam, P., Sastry, G., Askell, A., Agarwal, S., Herbert-Voss, A., Krueger, G., Henighan, T., Child, R., Ramesh, A., Ziegler, D. M., Wu, J., Winter, C., … Amodei, D. (2020). Language models are few-shot learners. Cornell University. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2005.14165
Chan, C. K. Y., & Hu, W. (2023). Students’ voices on generative AI: Perceptions, benefits, and challenges in higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20, Article 43. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00411-8
Common Sense Media, & Hopelab. (2024). Teen and young adult perspectives on generative AI: Patterns of use, excitements, and concerns. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/teen-and-young-adult-perspectives-on-generative-ai.pdf
Compeau, D. R., & Higgins, C. A. (1995). Computer self-efficacy: Development of a measure and initial test. MIS Quarterly, 19(2), 189-211. https://doi.org/10.2307/249688
Cotton, D. R. E., Cotton, P. A., & Shipway, J. R. (2023). Chatting and cheating: Ensuring academic integrity in the era of ChatGPT. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 61(2), 228-239. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2023.2190148
Divekar, R. R., Gonzalez, L., Guerra, S., Caggiano, D., & Sage, M. (2024). Usage and knowledge of online tools and generative AI: A survey of students (Version 1). Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4882673/v1
Feuerriegel, S., Hartmann, J., Janiesch, C., Heinzl, A., & Maedche, A. (2024). Generative AI. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 66(2), 111-126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-023-00834-7
Ipek, Z. H., Gözüm, A. İ. C., Papadakis, S., & Kallogiannakis, M. (2023). Educational applications of the ChatGPT AI system: A systematic review research. Educational Process: International Journal, 12(3), 26-55. https://doi.org/10.22521/edupij.2023.123.2
Johnston, H. W., Wells, R. F., Shanks, E. M., Boey, T., & Parsons, B. N. (2024). Student perspectives on the use of generative artificial intelligence technologies in higher education. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 20, Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-024-00149-4
Karpathy, A., Abbeel, P., Brockman, G., Chen, P., Cheung, V., Duan, Y., Goodfellow, I., Kingma, D., Ho, J., Houthooft, R., Salimans, T., Schulman, J., Sutskever, I., & Zaremba, W. (2016, June 16). Generative models. OpenAI. https://openai.com/index/generative-models/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Kelleher, J. D. (2019). Deep learning (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series). MIT Press. https://books.google.ca/books?id=ZU6qDwAAQBAJ
Krause, S., Panchal, B. H., & Ubhe, N. (2025). Evolution of learning: Assessing the transformative impact of generative AI on higher education. Frontiers of Digital Education, 2(2), Article 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44366-025-0058-7
Lim, W. M., Gunasekara, A., Pallant, J. L., Pallant, J. I., & Pechenkina, E. (2023). Generative AI and the future of education: Ragnar¨ok or reformation? A paradoxical perspective from management educators. The International Journal of Management Education, 21(2), Article 100790. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2023.100790
Microsoft. (2023). Work Trend Index: Will AI Fix Work? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/will-ai-fix-work
OpenAI. (2025). Building an AI-ready workforce: A look at college student ChatGPT adoption in the US. https://cdn.openai.com/global-affairs/openai-edu-ai-ready-workforce.pdf
OpenAI, Achiam, J., Adler, S., Agarwal, S., Ahmad, L., Akkaya, I., Aleman, F. L., Almeida, D., Altenschmidt, J., Altman, S., Anadkat, S., Avila, R., Babuschkin, I., Balaji, S., Balcom, V., Baltescu, P., Bao, H., Bavarian, M., Belgum J., … McGrew, B. (2023). GPT-4 technical report. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2303.08774
Pinaya, W. H., Graham, M. S., Kerfoot, E., Tudosiu, P.-D., Dafflon, J., Fernandez, V., Sanchez, P., Wolleb, J., da Costa. P. F., Patel, A., Chung, H., Zhao, C., Peng, W., Liu, Z., Mei, X., Lucena, O., Ye, J. C., Tsaftaris, S. A., Dogra, P., ... Cardoso, M. J. (2023). Generative ai for medical imaging: extending the monai framework. Cornell University. https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.15208
Purdue University. (2023). Leveraging AI for good: IDA+A partnerships provide students new ways to utilize artificial intelligence in and out of the classroom. https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/purduetoday/2024/Q2/leveraging-ai-for-good-idaa-partnerships-provide-students-new-ways-to-utilize-artificial-intelligence-in-and-out-of-the-classroom
Rahman, M. M., & Watanobe, Y. (2023). ChatGPT for education and research: Opportunities, threats, and strategies. Applied Sciences, 13(9), Article 5783. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13095783
Roediger, H. L. III, & Pyc, M. A. (2012). Inexpensive techniques to improve education: Applying cognitive psychology to enhance educational practice. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1(4), 242-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2012.09.002
Roumeliotis, K. I., & Tselikas, N. D. (2023). ChatGPT and open-AI models: A preliminary review. Future Internet, 15(6), Article 192. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15060192
Ruano-Borbalan, J.-C. (2025). The transformative impact of artificial intelligence on higher education: A critical reflection on current trends and futures directions. International Journal of Chinese Education, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2212585X251319364
Sajja, R., Sermet, Y., Fodale, B., & Demir, I. (2025). Evaluating AI-powered learning assistants in engineering higher education: Student engagement, ethical challenges, and policy implications. Cornell University. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.05699
Su, J., & Yang, W. (2023). Unlocking the power of ChatGPT: A framework for applying generative AI in education. ECNU Review of Education, 6(3), 355-366. https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311F231168423
Taneja, K., Maiti, P., Kakar, S., Guruprasad, P., Rao, S., & Goel, A. K. (2024). Jill Watson: A virtual teaching assistant powered by ChatGPT. In Artificial Intelligence in Education (pp. 324-337). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64302-6_23
Terwiesch, C. (2023). Would Chat GPT-3 get a Wharton MBA? A prediction based on its performance in the operations management course. University of Pennsylvania. https://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Christian-Terwiesch-Chat-GTP.pdf

How to cite this article

APA

Mohammad, N. M., Demers, M., McCubbin, E., Mitchell, J., & Fulmer, S. M. (2025). How college students use ChatGPT. Pedagogical Research, 10(4), em0250. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/17428

Vancouver

Mohammad NM, Demers M, McCubbin E, Mitchell J, Fulmer SM. How college students use ChatGPT. PEDAGOGICAL RES. 2025;10(4):em0250. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/17428

AMA

Mohammad NM, Demers M, McCubbin E, Mitchell J, Fulmer SM. How college students use ChatGPT. PEDAGOGICAL RES. 2025;10(4), em0250. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/17428

Chicago

Mohammad, Nagham M., Matthew Demers, Erin McCubbin, Jackson Mitchell, and Sara M. Fulmer. "How college students use ChatGPT". Pedagogical Research 2025 10 no. 4 (2025): em0250. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/17428

Harvard

Mohammad, N. M., Demers, M., McCubbin, E., Mitchell, J., and Fulmer, S. M. (2025). How college students use ChatGPT. Pedagogical Research, 10(4), em0250. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/17428

MLA

Mohammad, Nagham M. et al. "How college students use ChatGPT". Pedagogical Research, vol. 10, no. 4, 2025, em0250. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/17428