Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

Artificial Intelligence is a technology which continues to be developed for various purposes, including for use in the classroom. With any emerging technology there will be concerns about ethical use and gaps in technology access, and both can be addressed in the English 100 classroom. Taking time to build your understanding of AI and how it’s situated within the writing process, and articulating your intentions for its use in your classroom, can help alleviate concerns for both you and your students.

Understanding AI

Generative Artificial Intelligence tools, like ChatGPT, use technology and information to produce human-like text. Most often, a user inputs a prompt and the tool outputs a response. Drawing from online content like articles, books, and websites, the AI tool will seek to output text which is responsive to both context and genre as communicated in the user’s prompt. This responsiveness and the tool’s often authoritative tone can make it hard to distinguish AI-generated writing from human writing. However, at this stage, AI tools cannot determine accuracy of information or ethically use or cite source material.

ChatGPT and other AI tools are accessible via web browser and require registration and the creation of an account to access their software.

We do not have a standardized English 100 program policy regarding the use or prohibition of generative AI tools in E100 classrooms. We do, however, ask that instructors work to develop their own critical AI literacy, “not just how AI models work but also about the risk, rewards, capacities, and complications of AI tools” (MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI). Out of this literacy, instructors should develop their own policies that center both the value of writing to learning, academic integrity, and an ethic of transparency around the use of assistive technologies. These policies and the ideas/concerns/goals they are founded upon should be discussed with students, in hopes of encouraging critical thought and literacy among students regarding the use of generative AI in this class and other rhetorical situations. See the Sweetland Center for Writing guidance on course policies for chatbots and the collaborative Google Doc of varied classroom policies from university instructors across the country.

The UW-Madison Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring has also created a resource for understanding and discussing Generative AI. The resource includes suggestions for ways to discuss AI in the classroom and some guidance on instructional opportunities and challenges. What is presented is not institutional policy but rather guidance.

Classroom Strategies for Addressing Generative AI

Discuss Advantages and Disadvantages

Providing students context about AI’s strengths and weaknesses will help them understand where it fits (or doesn’t fit) in the writing process. Some weaknesses have been mentioned here already: accuracy of information and ethical use and citation of sources. Additionally, AI writing tends to be formulaic and lack emotion, and it can reproduce bias and spread misinformation. Other possible risks and rewards have been outlined by the MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI. Reading an article like “What AI Teaches Us about Good Writing” or any number of other thinkpieces or articles can provide a framework for classroom conversation.

Provide Guidelines for Acceptable Use

Giving students explicit guidelines about where and when it is appropriate to use AI in your classroom can be helpful for students as they navigate the semester. This can be done in the syllabus but also in individual assignments and classroom activities. Encourage transparency regardless of your guidelines, asking students to reflect on their writing tools, technologies, and processes.

Co-construct Classroom Expectations

After discussing AI’s affordances and limitations, collaborate with students to create a list of expectations for your classroom, including the use of AI tools. Ask students to connect these expectations with the learning outcomes and goals of the E100 classroom. Collaborating in this way can provide agency and accountability for students.

Create and Revise Assignments 

Consider revising or creating assignments to account for the possibility of AI by emphasizing specificity, referring to local concepts, and incorporating reflection. Avoid assignments that purely ask students to summarize texts, instead asking them to analyze and evaluate according to a specific purpose. Scaffolding assignments and asking students to show the stages of their writing work can be useful. Multimodal projects also may be a helpful option. AI tools may also be helpfully used at the invention and revision stages of the writing process.

Facilitate Writing Process Reflection and Documentation

The English 100 portfolio system lends itself to frequent reflection, which is a skill that students need to learn and practice (see more in the Build Reflective Learning into the Portfolio Process chapter). Consider incorporating reflection questions which specifically ask students to share their process, including their use of AI tools. Generative AI tools can often provide a transcript of their “conversations,” which students could use as documentation. Overall, though, ask students to think critically about their writing processes and the tools they used to aid them in their compositions.

Navigating Academic Integrity

Policing student behavior can have negative effects on student engagement and overall development. It’s important that English 100 emphasizes process-based writing and the value of writing to learn. As such, avoid centering conversations of generative AI tools on an Academic Misconduct Framework, which emphasizes surveillance and policing; instead, consider an Academic Integrity Framework that invites a broader discussion about the respect, responsibility, and transparency involved in academic conversations.

The English 100 program cautions against the use of online AI writing detectors, which are not only often inaccurate (particularly for second-language learners and other speakers of alternative Englishes), but also present student privacy and intellectual property concerns. Submitting student work to software like Turnitin should only be done with explicit permission from students, since submissions will be archived in these programs. If you know you will use Turnitin or other detection softwares, you should indicate so on your syllabus and provide students an opportunity to decline their use.

If you use AI in the classroom, students should not be required to share personal information or incur costs to access software like ChatGPT.

Additional Resources

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Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom Copyright © 2023 by University of Wisconsin-Madison English 100 Program. All Rights Reserved.