Know Your Student – embracing GPTs in the future of cyber education

28 March 2023

As a leading provider of digital forensics education at Notion Digital Forensics, we’ve been closely monitoring the impact of large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, on the educational landscape.

Our Know Your Student (KYS) approach at Notion Digital Forensics

No teaching can start until you Know Your Student.

At Notion Digital Forensics, we have always focused on high-touch, curated educational experiences instead of mass-produced textbook or self-paced online education websites. This sets us apart from providers that focus on creating automated or low-interaction online courses.

Should we even bother marking papers without Know Your Student?

Where marks matter, Campbell’s Law comes into play. Campbell’s Law states that “the more a quantitative social indicator is used for decision-making, the more subject it is to corruption pressures.” Put simply, higher stakes on grades increase incentives to circumvent academic integrity.

See no evil, hear no evil

Undoubtedly, there has always been awareness that cheating is more widespread than reported. This may be heightened by institutional pressure to support students. However, when an online tutor oversees 30 or more students without direct connection, it’s difficult to assess the legitimacy of a student’s performance. Introducing ChatGPT into this environment can make assigning marks to a self-paced course almost meaningless and disadvantage honest students.

ChatGPT should be a tutor, not the enemy

If you eliminate marks and focus on gaining competence and encouraging curiosity with a KYS mindset, then ChatGPT becomes an outstanding tutor instead of the enemy. It’s able to help you learn by plugging in gaps and help students spot ‘hallucinations’.

Some universities are already encouraging staff to adapt to the new post-GPT world by building its use into courses. Some even use it as a learning opportunity to show the benefits and risks of large language models.

AI Tools are already necessary to do good work in forensics

Criminal methods continually evolve, demanding that cyber professionals stay updated with the latest tools and techniques. It’s not uncommon for seasoned professionals to develop custom scripts to counter emerging threats.

However, with the advent of Github Copilot and Codex AI, courses focusing on Python scripts alone have become outdated and less practical for real-world applications. To remain effective in the post-GPT era, it is crucial that practical professionals adapt and incorporate GPT-based tools into their investigative arsenal or be overwhelmed with unnecessary manual work.

Why we have always focused on Know Your Student

Our education markets have been senior business and government leaders who are high on curiosity and short on time. Our focused approach is designed to maximise the aspects of high-touch education our clients value, such as:

Where possible we talk with the student before the course to ensure they are on the right course and will get value out of it. We turned away students regularly to save them time. They appreciate this.

ChatGPT becomes a resource instead of a threat

The good thing in such a paradigm is that ChatGPT can be encouraged for use to help them, because it won’t make it unfair for students, and it also enhances discussions and prevents people from being ‘left behind’ for fear of saying something dumb.

A facilitator can personally assess each person’s level of mastery of the topic if this is required, not based on an online submission open to gaming.

The importance of accessibly priced education remains

I acknowledge the importance of affordable and accessible ‘sliced up textbook’ courses for society. These courses must exist for those who need access to affordable education. But if you’re paying more than a few hundred dollars for a course, students deserve a more engaging and personalised experience. This is where our KYS approach is crucial in the post-ChatGPT world.