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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1416152
This article is part of the Research Topic Continuing Engineering Education for a Sustainable Future View all 9 articles

Developing Written Communication Skills in Engineers in Spanish: Is ChatGPT a Tool or a Hindrance?

Provisionally accepted
Vicente Antonio A. Mirón-Mérida Vicente Antonio A. Mirón-Mérida Rebeca M. García-García Rebeca M. García-García *
  • School of Engineering and Sciences, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), Monterrey, Mexico

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    As 2023 became a disruptive year, due to the accelerated appearance of AI tools such as ChatGPT, the educational systems started to change and adapt to the new approaches observed in students, teachers, and employers. Although AI is likely to be integrated into different industrial and academic processes, its indiscriminate use could hinder the development of soft skills, including oral and written communication. Hence, it is important to identify any AI-generated assignments to secure a successful learning process. For those reasons, in this work, the effectivity of three plagiarism checkers, namely Turnitin, Unicheck and GPTZero, was evaluated on an engineering-based written text generated in ChatGPT in the Spanish language. A comparison with the plagiarism rate obtained for an original piece was conducted with One-way ANOVA. In all the cases, based on the low plagiarism rates (Unicheck: 14.44 %, Turnitin: 12.43 %), no plagiarism was detected in the AI-generated texts. Likewise, the GPTZero platform detected low AI-Origin in the texts created in ChatGPT (1.04 %). Both results denoted the low efficiency of these platforms for assignments in Spanish and the high risk of conducting plagiarism without implications. Additionally, different alternatives were proposed for either integrating ChatGPT in learning activities or replacing the use of AI to ensure the development of skills and competencies in the students.

    Keywords: AI, Critical Thinking, written communication, Engineering, Soft skills, higher education

    Received: 15 Apr 2024; Accepted: 01 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mirón-Mérida and García-García. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rebeca M. García-García, School of Engineering and Sciences, Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), Monterrey, Mexico

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.