1 Introduction

The COVID-19 crisis highlighted an old problem for most students transitioning from high school into college, the deficiencies in structural and critical analytical writing and reading skills in relation to what is expected of these students in the different courses at the college level [1,2,3]. This first-year of college is like a ceremony of ‘passage’ into the adulthood of education and the premise of a potentially successful academic and professional life. Students often navigate this new learning environment unaware of the many layers of complexities involved in writing at the academic level.

This paper mainly focuses on three important educational considerations:

  1. 1.

    Noticeable deficiencies in writing skills preparation among high school graduates as a consequence of systemic challenges in high school curricula and grading policies [1,2,3].

  2. 2.

    The accentuation of education such challenges during the COVID-19 crisis and its pressures on pedagogy, assessment, and mental health at the high school and higher institution levels [4, 5].

  3. 3.

    The popularization of a generative AI illusion of written communications made ‘easy and competence-free’ as a ‘solution’ or ‘fix’ for one’s struggles to adapt their already deficient foundational writing skills to meet the standards and expectations of academic papers across the disciplines [6]. This has led to further challenges in instructional and assessment strategies as well as policies regulating the use of AI technology in education.

Since the COVID-19 crisis started, writing has taken a new role in communication, as in-person interactions were not always possible due to lockdowns. Academically and professionally, emailing and sharing knowledge through a written format were further popularized during this period. For students transitioning from high school into post-secondary educational institutions, the academic writing challenges were accentuated due to academic losses, and unstable learning environments, sometimes online and other times in-person or alternating depending on lockdowns due to the number of COVID-19 infections affecting students’ mental health and learning. Advances in technology have been available in the educational context, especially writing tools such as editing software, which are easily found. For instance, Microsoft Word and Grammarly are used widely as editing tools. Microsoft WORD, as well as Grammarly, have been evolving their capabilities, offering students autocorrection suggestions, including how to re-write complete paragraphs, but mainly flagging potential grammar mistakes. These editing tools may help students improve their paper drafts but in a more limited manner compared to other technological tools available online. Generative Artificial Intelligence—AI software such as ChatGPT, due to its ability to create original but derivative text, has raised concerns about plagiarism, academic conduct, and the process of learning and becoming proficient in formal writing styles such as academic writing.

This paper discusses the struggles of junior college students as they navigate different courses seeking to adapt their often-deficient academic writing skills to a more formal and structured form of writing standard to most post-secondary institutions’ paper writing style. It explores these challenges in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the popularization of writing platforms using Artificial Intelligence—AI such as ChatGPT. The topic is relevant as educators strive to address the potential impact of the pandemic legacy. The paper focuses on the potential deterioration of pre-existing academic deficiencies, a decline in mental health as well as the role of technology in academic writing, especially looking at ChatGPT’s potential impact on first-year college student writing. It may also contribute to pedagogical discussions on the current challenges surrounding the use of artificial intelligence technology and how better to support beginner student writers in an academic context.

2 Literature review

Canada is a diverse country. Such human diversity is often found in classrooms composed of students from many cultures, languages, and socioeconomic backgrounds, leading to a wide range of learning needs and challenges impacting education [7]. Some studies suggest that high school Province Diploma Examination outcomes do not always translate into an acute picture of students’ literacy skills, as many first-year college students who obtained good results in the Alberta diploma exam may struggle to meet the standards of academic writing required at the university level [8, 9]. They point to the need for better literacy practices in high school to support students transitioning from high school to university, especially English Language Learners.

As shown in the 2018 PISA results [10], overall literacy skills among Alberta students also suggest a decline in reading and, consequently, in writing abilities among high school students in recent years [11]. The root of the academic writing struggles often observed among first-year post-secondary students may be unclear. Still, the COVID-19 pandemic may have worsened these students’ ability to adapt or develop the academic writing skills needed in an academic setting. According to Aurini and Davies [12], “lengthy periods of time out of school generally create losses of literacy and numeracy skills and widen student achievement gaps” [p. 165]. For instance, the National Assessment of Educational Progress—NAEP [5] suggests that students who were already academically struggling were most likely affected by the pandemic, and academic deficiencies became more accentuated, especially among visible minorities.

The coronavirus crisis has impacted the higher education community and learning settings [13, 14]. Hawley et al. [15] explain that “to ensure student health and abide by governmental recommendations, universities worldwide have mostly transitioned to online teaching” impacting academic calendars, and students’ daily educational routine and learning experiences [p. 13]. Online courses have been available to college students for years, but the virtual learning approach experienced by students and educators during COVID-19 university lockdowns led to further testing of the limitations of home learning [13]. This process is characterized by the use of virtual platforms as learning tools. These learning tools were important to facilitate learning during school lockdowns. The virtual learning experiences during this period may have also broadened our understanding of how these learning tools can be used and how effective they are [4].

Many studies point to first-year college students' challenges transitioning from high school into college, adapting high school-level writing skills into much more refined and structured standardized practices required in college-level papers [1,2,3]. Academic deficiencies were further accentuated during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for the students who were already struggling with academic shortcomings prior to the coronavirus pandemic [5].

In addition, a survey conducted by the Office of National Statistics in the United Kingdom suggests that most higher education students were dissatisfied with their learning experience during the COVID-19 crisis lockdowns [14]. The survey results indicate two major concerns for these students: Learning delivery (75%) and quality of learning (71%). They suggest that the lack of opportunities for social interactions and face-to-face learning experiences impacted the students’ learning experiences. They may have also contributed to accentuating mental health issues, often leading to depression and academic loss. These factors add to other mental health stressors first-year post-secondary students may already face, such as “social relationships, loneliness, academic demands, and finances” [16, p. 885]. Duffy et al. [16] suggest increasing demands for mental health support among novice students.

Another study, based on an online survey performed between April 29 and May 31, 2020, which included students from the United States, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, China, Taiwan and South Korea points to university students’ concerns “about the quality of online learning, progress with their education, and maintaining interaction with peers and professors” [16, p. 4]. Interestingly, the study suggests that students shared similar concerns regarding academic progression and interactions prior to the pandemic. It also notes that mental health concerns were mostly higher among American students compared to other students surveyed.

Academic writing deficiencies and educational inequalities among first-year college students have been a complex problem over the years, especially in Canada and the United States [1,2,3, 17]. Some scholars point to grade inflation in high schools that ultimately may grant students a Grade Point Average—GPA high enough to enter most programs at the university level but does not correspond to the writing skills needed to carry on more advanced analytical writing skills required at the university level [18, 19]. For instance, Cosh [20] argues that in Ontario, high school grades trended up over the years, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, they climbed substantially compared to previous years. He suggests two main reasons for the sudden increase in high school students’ grades:

  • First, inadequate government grading policy may not clearly and accurately portray learning outcomes. The author explains that in an attempt to address any shortfall from the pandemic, the Ontario Ministry of Education issued a directive that high school students’ grades should not be lower than they were before the pandemic.

  • Secondly, grade inflation during the challenging times of the pandemic, where teachers may have prioritized students’ well-being over academics, believing that higher grades could contribute to students’ resilience and sense of optimism amid such a challenging time.

Cosh [20] concludes that while grade inflation may have benefited many academically struggling students to enter specific postsecondary programs, it might have been detrimental to truly high-achiever students. He explains that as most students averaged 90 percent, such grades became meaningless and kept some of these students whose academic merits matched their grades out of their desired postsecondary programs. I would add that another potential problem with grade inflation is student retention, widening the struggles in subjects such as academic writing, which may impact student dropout rates and increase student debt without the prospect of finishing a degree.

Graff [1] explores the many problems within the problem faced by students transitioning from high school into college. He suggests that such problems are complex and have many ramifications, from the failure of high schools to offer these students proper opportunities to develop their academic writing skills to the inability of higher institutions to effectively bridge this ‘passage’ stage in students’ academic journey. According to Birenbaum et al. [21], “current context of accountability of Canadian public schools, assessment for learning policies and protocols are beginning to emerge in an effort to support teacher practice in this area” [p. 123], suggesting that some teachers may lack the skills to assess students in a way that grades reflect the student’s knowledge of writing.

Research also points to high education potential stigmas towards teaching how to write at the university level such as the belief that novice university students will eventually learn how to write, perhaps justifying the minor emphasis on writing courses compared to other disciplines [2, 3, 13, 22]. Gómez-García et al. [13] explain that even though some institutions offer academic writing classes, often these courses are taught by contract staff. Some faculty staff occasionally refer to them in a depreciative tone as ‘grammar’ courses, suggesting that anybody can teach them and it is not higher in priority for most tenured faculty [13]. More than generalizing the students’ writing ability needs, Wilder and Yagelski [3] argue that students are all at different writing levels. They note that the number of courses institutions often offer students is insufficient to address the student's needs to develop their academic reading and writing analytical skills required to succeed in academic writing. The authors also suggest a correlation between students' academic writing skill level and their grades. That is to say, students with more developed analytical writing abilities often receive higher grades.

Volante and DeLuca [19] point to grade inflation as another potential contributor to novice postsecondary students' challenges due to “the fact that some students, presumably from high schools with more generous grading, have a false sense of their academic ability which may lead to a rude awakening at university” [p. 1]. It likely adds to the frustrations and sometimes the discontent among some junior college students about taking academic writing courses, as one may assume students already have the required writing skills based on their high school grades. It may also contribute to some myths, such as students’ popular belief that ‘guessing’ what the professor wants them to write will lead to higher grades or if the professor’s ‘dislike’ for a student will result in low grades at the university level.

In the mists of the pandemic, which has impacted students’ and contributed to grade inflation, aggravating the challenges for first-year college students writing; ChatGPT—an AI tool that can be used to produce texts, increasingly started to become part of class conversations as students, as well as educators, are often curious to see how it works and the potential benefits and challenges to education [6, 23]. While some students may find the use of AI in writing as a possible solution to the knowledge gap between high school and college expected writing skills, educators are often concerned the overreliance on technology would be detrimental to actual learning, and add to the difficulties students may have to adjust to more permanent in-person learning.

Dobrin [6] defines AI as the “theory and development of computer systems that can perform tasks that previously required human intelligence” [p. 4]. The author argues that, like human abilities, these systems learn from performing various tasks, adapting and improving to become more efficient over time. However, unlike humans, these systems lack a critical understanding of discerning information accuracy. Dobrin [6] also points to how introducing such systems may change how we perceive plagiarism. Ultimately, the popularization of AI for academic writing purposes is complex and problematic, and it might be connected to a vacuum in responsive practices addressing the challenges students have experienced transitioning from high school into university over the years. Namely, high schools and postsecondary educational institutions may be failing to provide students with meaningful opportunities to develop and grow their writing abilities, an essential skill in academic and professional success prospects.

3 Discussion: Reflections of an educator

3.1 Academic losses and managing learning from home

I was teaching high school when classes started transitioning from in-person to virtual classes due to the first COVID-19 school lockdown. At that point, many high school students were already struggling with writing and often not writing at grade level. Reflecting on the transition of high school students into a postsecondary setting, the researcher in me wants to know: Are academic writing skills any different for English language learners compared to English native speakers?

Based on my observations, I noticed that while academic writing challenges in first-year postsecondary students were slightly more accentuated among those whose first language is other than English [8], generally speaking, most English native speakers and English Language Learners junior college students struggle with the formal structure of academic writing. I mainly noticed that their writing performance levels varied and that perhaps students’ previous writing experiences, socio-economics opportunities, and their views on why they need to take the course play a role in their learning outcomes. While some students who perhaps may have had high grades in high school may be led to believe that learning more formal and structured writing is largely unnecessary, others have little confidence in their writing skills, blaming low grades on their ineffective writing abilities. Some authors suggest that grade inflation and popular stereotypes associated with more formal writing styles may often impact students’ growth mindsets toward academic writing [3, 19]. Interestingly, some studies suggest a connection between academic writing skills and higher grades [2, 3].

Like many other university instructors, I had to transition from in-person teaching to virtual teaching depending on the coronavirus influx of infections to what I would call a more flexible shifting teaching style. Aside from the school lockdowns, sometimes, even when teaching in-person, a rapid influx of COVID-19 infections would spike, and we had to switch back and forth from in-person to temporarily online lessons. During this time, the three main concerns observed were:

3.1.1 Virtual learning

One of the first challenges was having to quickly adapt learning to ‘virtual classrooms’. To start, students were acquainted with technology use, and ‘logging in’ into devices, for instance, was not as much of a problem for the majority of my first-year college students. However, staying focused and often attending synchronous virtual classes proved daunting for some students. Asynchronous classes also appeared problematic as some students mentioned that they never ended up watching the recorded lessons, ultimately just missing the class.

The return to primarily in-person classes also presented some challenges. To illustrate these challenges, specifically during this transition process as COVID-19 infection numbers subsided and students were allowed to return to campus, some students struggled to disconnect from their phones and seemed not entirely active in learning and participating in class discussions. Concerns about the overuse of screen time and its impact on student’s mental health may explain the often-poor student learning engagement. For various reasons, most students transitioning from high school struggled to adapt to a fast-paced and unstable learning environment.

3.1.2 Learning engagement

Aside from occasional technology glitches to a certain extent, this new concept of pandemic-induced virtual learning impacted the natural flow of lessons. I would describe such processes as managing slides while watching for virtual hands being raised and students switching on and off and joining small group discussions in the chat rooms, just to realize that some students had left even though their status showed they were ‘online’.

Socioeconomic challenges may have contributed to such absences as many of these students also worked part-time or, in some cases, some students struggling financially took extra shifts during virtual classes to make ends meet. In addition, I also noticed that some of them might not own a personal laptop but rather a phone. While phones were practical tools for short-term communications, such as texting, they didn’t seem very effective when reading long texts or writing essays.

3.1.3 Learning outcomes

Over 70 percent of postsecondary students surveyed in the United Kingdom negatively regarded their virtual learning experience [14]. Research suggests that students transitioning from high school often face many challenges incorporating academic writing into their university essays [1,2,3]. The COVID-19 sudden changes added to the challenges and frustrations students often experience as they may not acquire the writing foundation during high school prior to transitioning into university writing [1]. However, such challenges became more evident as many high school students had to adapt to remote learning and school lockdowns in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic [5].

The disconnection in the virtual classes and significant absences may have affected students’ learning and led even to lower learning outcomes reflected in their grades compared to previous years. This challenging time often led to novice college students having to adapt to new academic and social norms put in place to manage the COVID-19 infection spread. In sum, social interactions are critical to creating a healthy learning environment. Students struggled with social isolation and increased stress due to restrictions of movement affecting their mental health and likely impacting their learning.

3.2 Mental health and resilience

During the lockdowns and as we return to class still having to adapt to COVID-19 fluctuating numbers affecting learning settings, mental health was a concern as many students struggled to manage uncertainties in their academic and professional lives as well as personal life. First-year college students’ struggles with mental health are often highlighted in research as it impacts their well-being and, consequently, their ability to focus and engage in learning [16, 24]. Duffy et al. [16] explain that:

The transition to university coincides with a critical developmental period characterised by individuation and separation from family, development of new social connections, and increased autonomy and responsibility. At the same time, the brain is undergoing accelerated development and is at heightened sensitivity to risk exposures… [p. 885]

I found that social interactions during class discussions, group work, and after-class informal conversations on ‘what was going on’ in the student’s personal life affecting their learning were viral to attendance and students’ academic growth. Students seemed more comfortable with the ‘why’ of an absence in-person than writing it in an email or sharing it during a virtual meeting. The opportunities for such interactions did not migrate well into a virtual learning environment, often leading to low attendance.

However, signs of resilience among these young adults were also remarkable and inspiring. For instance, I had a student who attended an online class from a hospital bed and another student who would attend every class whether we were in person or a temporally virtual format, even if they were struggling with depression. These are just some examples of my inspiring students who often struggled with academic writing and the lack of foundational writing skills taken for granted as one finishes high school.

Overall, virtual learning may have contributed to accentuating mental health issues and academic challenges that first-year college students already experienced over the years. These students will need mental health support to continue developing resilience practices to cope and overcome the negative impact reminiscent of this critical period in their lives.

3.3 The role of technology

Surprisingly, as the return to in-class lessons has become more permanent, I noticed that fewer courses have been offered online, and students often ask me for printed copies of the course material. However, having all the course material available in learning platforms has advantages as you can always access them anywhere, and assignments can often be submitted up to midnight.

As we returned to primarily in-person classes, conversations around the use of ChatGPT and the potential subsequent impact on students’ learning instead of copying and pasting work from an AI machine became part of ongoing conversations. Although there is still limited research on the topic, many informal and formal discussions addressing the risks of improper use of AI-produced knowledge in many areas of education, including writing, are taking place. They mainly seek to foresee the challenges and policy regulations needed to continue to create and maintain healthy and striving learning perspectives for our students. The question: ‘What are the risks that ChatGPT presents to academic integrity and learning, and how educators and educational institutions can mitigate such risks?’ is central to this reflection.

Some may agree that there are many positive aspects to the use of technology in helping to bridge the academic writing deficiencies noticed in first-year college students. Editing, for example, is essential for improving the quality of papers. To illustrate, these tools have been particularly important for students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, a disorder that affects the way a person decodes and processes language, to address minor grammar mistakes [25]. Editing software, such as Grammarly, may play a positive role in helping students address basic grammar issues; however, it does not generate a paper independently.

ChatGPT can be described as an AI chatbot that mimics humanlike conversational interactions that can respond to questions and compose texts such as articles, and papers using user’s input [6, 26]. Created by Elon Musk and Sam Altman in 2015, the initial ChatGPT project has evolved over time, leading to more sophisticated AI versions and popular availability such as the 2022 OpenAI, an AI open-source software that provides a free version of ChatGPT based on an improved version of GPT-3.5 [26]. Hetler [26] explains that “ChatGPT works through its Generative Pre-trained Transformer, which uses specialized algorithms to find patterns within data sequences” [p. 1], learning and improving its performance through feedback. Some of its limitations lay in the fact that it may use inaccurate information and omit the sources used in its texts.

Academic writing and integrity concerning the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT have become a central point of reflection in academia as educational organizations develop policies to regulate the use of AI tools widely available. Dobrin [6] points to the complexity of issues justifying concerns about the use of AI tools and its implications for education:

  • Plagiarism – generally speaking, plagiarism is the misappropriation of somebody else’s ideas or work by using them as their own without citing the original source. The need to rethink the current definition of plagiarism as a person does not produce AI texts but rather provides the input, which then a machine generates the text independently. In this case, Dobrin [6] points to questions such as who has ownership over the text? Is it shared ownership? I would add, in a scenario in which the student should produce an individual paper, submitting a ‘shared’ text, for instance, written by an AI bot with the student’s input, in addition to the fact that many of the sources’ ideas used in the composition are not properly cited would fall under plagiarism current rules.

  • Authorship—if machines produce the text, so would they hold authorship rights?

  • Knowledge—as AI uses a database of previous digitally written knowledge produced by AI and humans to generate ‘new’ content, “we must ask whether some GenAI platforms are themselves guilty of plagiarism, regardless of whether a student later submits the GenAi’s output under their own name” [6, p. 15].

  • Accuracy—AI is not able to distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information, which may overall compromise the quality and credibility of texts produced using AI, emphasizing the need to develop critical skills in students’ writing.

Similar to “Grammarly”, which is a type of editing tool known as a typing assistant that mainly aids writers with writing mechanic issues, ChatGPT can also be used to enhance our writing as well as save time on research sources to support our arguments if you know what good writing should look like. However, unlike ChatGPT, editing tools such as ‘Grammarly’ are less likely to completely write an article on behalf of a student, making ChatGPT much more suitable to aid students’ cheating and, consequently plagiarism. This is a valid concern among educators and conversations about how to address the detrimental misuse of technology, educational institutions are key to seeking ways to manage the use of such tools through policies and regulations.

3.4 ChatGPT: do I have to ‘pick’ a side?

As an educator, it is important to inform students what are the benefits of developing the writing skills essential to independently and proficiently communicate in formal settings. The freedom of knowing how to properly write in formal settings is key to personal and academic as well as professional growth. Technology can facilitate learning and communicating, as editing tools can be very effective in refining our writing, particularly for students with learning disabilities that impact their ability to read and write. However, I would agree with those advocating for legislation to set rules for the use of ChatGPT as it continues to evolve, and we do not fully understand how it could impact education, raising valid concerns among educators. From hallway chats to department meetings, the advantages and disadvantages of ChatGPT have become the focus of discussion among educators, as it has become obvious that we cannot just ‘pick’ a side but reflect on practice in a time when technology has become more sophisticated. To address my thoughts on the question: Do I have to ‘pick’ a side? Towards informing an answer on whether we must ‘pick’ a side, Johnson and Iziev [23] argue:

We know from modern neuroscience that prediction is a core property of human intelligence. Perhaps the game of predict-the-next-word is what children unconsciously play when they are acquiring language themselves: listening to what initially seems to be a random stream of phonemes from the adults around them, gradually detecting patterns in that stream and testing those hypotheses by anticipating words as they are spoken. Perhaps that game is the initial scaffolding beneath all the complex forms of thinking that language makes possible. If you spend enough time with GPT-3, conjuring new prompts to explore its capabilities and its failings, you end up feeling as if you are interacting with a kind of child prodigy whose brilliance is shadowed by some obvious limitations: capable of astonishing leaps of inference; possessing deep domain expertise in a vast range of fields, but shockingly clueless about many basic facts; prone to strange, senseless digressions; unencumbered by etiquette and social norms. [pp. 13–14]

Traditionally, writing has always been an important skill to have. In the past, perhaps its significance was mostly associated with certain professions such as business and in some fields of study, often in the humanities programs. However, the COVID-19 pandemic may have enhanced the role of writing universally as we increasingly use emails, reports, and other written forms of communication to function in the academic and professional world.

An Academic Writing educator at Harvard University, Wilson [27] states that writing is ‘thinking’ and the knowledge of academic writing provides university students with the foundational skills needed to navigate life. He remarks, “Our world is full of things that need to be questioned, from ancient myths and historical events to current politics and the weird details of everyday life” [27] points to the practical nature of academic writing as he notes that “regardless of the direction you see your life going, you’ll be writing your way there” [p. 2]. He particularly mentions an example of the impact of writing on the Science majors, stating one may ace all the Sciences courses and graduate with honors, receiving a Ph.D., but most likely they will need to be able to properly write grant applications and academic articles to further their career. As Wilson [27] illustrates the need for the use of more formal standards of writing has become increasingly more evident. The written language format of communication has increasingly spread from term papers to professional settings.

The coronavirus accentuated old education problems, especially for students struggling with basic norms of essay writing, such as sentence construction often learned in high school. The combination of the many challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic added to students’ academic and personal aspects of life may lead to desperation, which could contribute to ‘cheating’ practices, likely using technology advances such as Chat GPT as a quick fix to bridge their unaddressed literacy deficiencies. These students may critically need transition writing courses in their first year of university to improve their academic reading and writing skillsets.

3.5 ‘am just bad at writing'

Every semester I ask the same question during the introduction class: Why are you taking this class? The students’ most common answer is: “I am just bad at writing”. I always start my class by explaining why it is ‘worth their time’ to learn how to write and openly discuss stereotypes related to different fields as well as address the low self-confidence in their abilities to learn how to write, making a point that academic writing is like learning how to drive a car; you need lessons and lots of practice. I also emphasize the fact that academic writing is not a natural ability that only some are born with, but rather a combination of factors and opportunities throughout student’s school experiences from K-12 from learning environment to socioeconomic scenarios that may dictate access to proper educational opportunities. Academic writing is a learned skill. If one invests time and effort into learning it, even if everyone develops their skills at different paces and levels, we can all become proficient in academic writing style.

First-year college students have different learning needs, and some may need to take a more foundational writing course prior to taking an academic writing course. As academic writing style is often not offered in high school, overall, student benefits from understanding its patterns and conventions before taking content-related classes requiring a good knowledge of such writing style. Knowing the nuances and intricacies of academic writing may lead to higher grades, one may know the content, but if the student cannot properly display it in their written papers, grades may be lower than those who can [3].

The current challenges related to the impact of the pandemic on high school students may have led to grade inflation and I would add that this might be just the ‘top of the iceberg’ as educational institutions might have to address the unevenness of academic skill sets as some students may be more prepared to manage academic work than others. Literacy might become a focus as writing is an important way to portray knowledge in academia, requiring more foundational courses to support possibly the majority of students requiring extra support to manage academic work, ultimately leaving postsecondary educational institutions with a few potential reflective considerations:

  1. 1.

    Compromise—perhaps underestimating the importance of writing skills: In a context where postsecondary institutions have no influence on how students are graded in high school, should they lower the academic writing standards of their courses, compromising their reputations and students’ professional opportunities?

  2. 2.

    Cost versus benefits: In the premise that many students believe that a higher education degree leads to better professional opportunities and financial gains, another possibility is for these institutions to invest in required foundational courses that would most likely increase the costs for students in terms of time and financial resources in hopes to better prepare students to their potential professional goals.

  3. 3.

    Artificial Intelligence reliance – AI has become popularized as a ‘solution’ to the lack of academic writing proficiency as it may produce texts that mimic human writing; however, the depth of critical thinking required in different writing texts produced in academia may lead to uncertainty whether these AI tools would lead to meaningful academic success. In other words, hopes that AI will bridge the significant writing deficiencies in post-pandemic postsecondary students have serious ethical and educational implications.

  4. 4.

    Rethink degree acceptance: Another possibility is perhaps to rethink admission requirements to better match degree suitability.

In conclusion, I concur that the struggles of students to meet higher education patterns and academic writing expectations as they transition from high school into university are still a challenge for students and institutions. More research on how to bridge these students' writing deficiencies is needed. Such a process resembles a ceremony of passage as academic writing skills developed during their college years will follow them throughout adulthood, personally and professionally [27].

Technology may help to bridge some of the challenges first-year college students often experience, but they are still far from being the ‘solution’ for most problems or replacing the ability to learn how to write. I indeed believe that humans are adaptable. Technology is here to stay, and it will evolve as well as the way we utilize it, often benefiting from the way it can make our lives easier and save time that can be enjoyed doing things we love. However, it is naïve to think that such adjustment will come naturally. Academic class conversations on the importance of academic integrity and responsive academic policies are crucial to addressing students’ choices of misusing technologies such as ChatGPT to cheat to the detriment of learning are essential.

According to Dobrin [6] “all technologies…have two paths: either they become ubiquitous and naturalized into how we do things, or they become obsolete. Sometimes they take both paths” [p. 9]. The real challenge for educators is to learn how to live with ChatGPT's many unknowns, acknowledge how it plays a role in our practice, and continue to advocate for learning and academic integrity in higher education. It is also important to integrate technology into this process in an educated and regulated manner that fosters the development of critical and analytical skills necessary for students to succeed in their academic and professional goals. Finding a balance between the human touch in learning and utilizing virtual tools to facilitate the learning process may indicate that we do not have to ‘pick’ a side when it comes to living with ChatGPT; the secret may be exploring ways to develop strategic practices to make it work for the good of education.