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Short abstract:

This presentation disaggregates and reviews the foci of different digital media narratives about ChatGPT in higher education on Dutch university websites. We furthermore explore and discuss what an appropriate response to hype could look like.

Long abstract:

Calling technology “hype” not only depicts changes of attention patterns in discourse but also contains a value judgement about the appropriate response, and language for the context, audience, and purpose. While it was initially unclear if the release of ChatGPT deserved further attention in higher education, the subsequent communications negotiated what features and metaphors to foreground and how to respond to a topic that has repeatedly been considered a hype. This presentation will disaggregate and review the attention patterns for different stories shared on university websites in the Netherlands.

The websites of the14 Dutch research universities and SURF were queried using a domain specific Google search query (e.g., “GPT3 OR GPT OR ChatBot OR ChatGPT OR GPT4 OR 'generative AI' site:wur.nl”). The documents in the corpus include, interviews, event announcements, reports, and instructions for students and educators. Data is pre-processed and analyzed in Python, using a dictionary approach that is informed by related literature. Findings include “the demand for the safe use of ChatGPT”, being the most prominent topic, with different suggestions to meet the challenges of assessing learning, detecting fraud, and supporting students. Other topics identified include bias & discrimination, job loss & change of academic life, privacy, the industry-university relationship, and relationships with AI. Distribution, intersection, and temporality of these topics are discussed at the background of the Dutch higher education system and the question of what a responsible response to futuristic communication and hype could look like.