How Students Use ChatGPT in Biochemistry Education: Evaluating Students' Prompts, Illustrations, and Reflective Assessments as Evidence

The present study aimed to investigate the utilization of ChatGPT by students in the context of learning biochemical concepts. To this end, 25 first-year students enrolled in the Medical Laboratory Techniques program were asked to illustrate a dipeptide composed of alanine and cysteine. The students were instructed to seek guidance exclusively from ChatGPT, without any interaction with the instructor. Subsequently, they were requested to draw on paper the dipeptide structure they believed to be accurate. The prompts submitted to ChatGPT by the students, the responses provided by ChatGPT, and the students' peptide illustrations were systematically examined. In addition, participants were assessed on their experience through a Reflective Evaluation Form. The findings revealed that, rather than engaging with the process to learn how to draw a dipeptide, students predominantly attempted to have ChatGPT generate the drawing for them. The majority of prompts focused on requesting a direct illustration of the peptide. Notably, all structural representations generated by ChatGPT were found to contain errors. Despite possessing the conceptual knowledge required to identify these inaccuracies, the students drew the flawed illustrations on their paper without critical assessment. In their reflective evaluations, students reported that ChatGPT's failure to deliver a definitive molecular structure of dipeptide led to confusion. They expressed the need for a figure of authority to validate the accuracy of the peptide structure, identifying the instructor as the appropriate individual for this role. Furthermore, they conveyed a clear preference for instructor-led guidance over reliance on artificial intelligence in such learning contexts.