OpenAI on July 29 introduced “study mode” in ChatGPT, a new feature aimed at helping students work through questions step by step instead of providing direct answers.
In a post on social media platform X, OpenAI’s President and co-co-founder Greg Brockman wrote, “Introducing study mode in ChatGPT — step by step guidance for students rather than quick answers.”
Who can use ChatGPT’s Study Mode?
The feature has been rolled out to logged-in users across Free, Plus, Pro, and Team plans from July 30, with ChatGPT Edu availability planned soon. You can try it here.
How can students use ChaGPT Study Mode?
The study mode offers personalised feedback to track progress and supports knowledge retention.
“When students engage with study mode, they’re met with guiding questions that calibrate responses to their objective and skill level to help them build deeper understanding. Study mode is designed to be engaging and interactive, and to help students learn something — not just finish something,” OpenAI said in a statement.
Why launch a Study Mode for students? OpenAI says…
OpenAI noted that ChatGPT is becoming one of the most widely used learning tools in the world, with students turning to it to work through challenging homework problems, exam preparation, and to explore new concepts.
“But its use in education has also raised an important question: how do we ensure it is used to support real learning, and doesn’t just offer solutions without helping students make sense of them? We’ve built study mode to help answer this question,” it said.
How study mode was built
The company shared that study mode is powered by custom system instructions “written in collaboration with teachers, scientists, and pedagogy experts to reflect a core set of behaviors that support deeper learning”.
“Instead of doing the work for them, study mode encourages students to think critically about their learning. Features like these are a positive step toward effective AI use for learning. Even in the AI era, the best learning still happens when students are excited about and actively engaging with the lesson material,” Robbie Torney, Senior Director of AI Programs at Common Sense Media said in the statement.
Limitations and what’s next
OpenAI called it the “first step” towards improving learning in ChatGPT, adding that while the tool is today powered by custom system instructions, the plan is to “train this behavior directly into our main models once we’ve learned what works best through iteration and student feedback”.
In terms of functionality, OpenAI plans to make study mode more engaging and helpful for students, with inclusion of:
- Clearer visualisations for complex or text-heavy concepts.
- Goal setting and progress tracking across conversations.
- Deeper personalisation tailored to each student’s skill level and goals
“As we run longer-term studies on how students learn best with AI, we intend to publish a deeper analysis of what we’ve learned about the links between model design and cognition, shape future product experiences based on these insights, and work side by side with the broader education ecosystem to ensure AI benefits learners worldwide,” it added.
