II. Teaching with Writing in an Age of AI
Examples of Writing Assignments that Incorporate AI (from UW-Madison Courses)
Below are examples of writing assignments used by instructors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that purposefully incorporate generative AI.
Struggling with how to adapt your writing assignment(s) in the age of AI? Contact the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) team to set up a one-to-one consultation.
Assignment on Critical Use of ChatGPT (Psychology)
Professor Morton Ann Gernsbacher uses the following assignment in her upper-level course on the psychological effects of the internet as well as in her Comm-B research methods course. Her assignment requires students to, in her words: “1) become familiar with ChatGPT; 2) to experience that ChatGPT can be erratically accurate; to become familiar with a ChatGPT detector (and its inaccuracy); and 4) to commit to informing me if they use ChatGPT for their work in my course.”
ChatGPT Assignment
Learn about ChatGPT by doing all of the following:
Fifth, learn the importance of *always* using critical thinking when using ChatGPT.
- To refresh your memory of what a moral panic is, which has been the topic of this Unit, read Ferguson and Faye’s (2018) article, “A History of Panic Over Entertainment Technology.”
- Read Haridy’s (2020) article, “Concerns over Kids’ Screen-Time a Modern-Day ‘Moral Panic’, Says Study.”
- Then, to learn how not to panic about ChatGPT, read Greene’s (2022) Mastodon post and Eyler’s (2022) Tweet, both of which recommend avoiding moral panic about ChatGPT by teaching students to use critical thinking when using ChatGPT.
- To practice using critical thinking when using ChatGPT, go to ChatGPT (or the ChatGPT Playground you used before) and ask it to answer each of these SIX questions. Write down what ChatGPT gets right and what it gets wrong when answering each question.
- Who is Bucky Badger and what type of clothes does he wear? [NOTE: If you can’t remember what Bucky Badger wears, see this photo.]
- What does Bucky Badger do, at football games, after his team scores? [NOTE: If you don’t know what Bucky does after his team scores, see this video.]
- Who is Bucky Badger and what type of hat does he wear? [NOTE: Bucky doesn’t wear a hat, but this question is to illustrate the principle of GIGO, garbage in, garbage out — meaning ChatGPT might not correct your wrong assumptions.]
- How long has Bucky Badger been the mascot at the University of Minnesota? [NOTE: This question is also to illustrate the principle of GIGO.]
- What tradition that has to do with Abe Lincoln do UW-Madison students do when they graduate? [NOTE: If you’re not familiar with this tradition, see this photo.]
- What do the chairs look like on Memorial Union Terrace? [NOTE: If you can’t remember what the Terrace chairs look like, see this photo.]
Sixth, learn how to use a ChatGPT detector, which is used to detect whether text was written by a human or by ChatGPT.
- Go to this GPT-2 Output Detector (you do not need to create an account to use this).
Copy the response you posted on the Discussion Board for Unit 1: Assignment #3 and paste it into the ChatGPT detector box. Take a partial screenshot of the output of the ChatGPT detector (meaning a screenshot of just the output, including the results bar, not your entire screen; your screenshot should look like this; if you do not know how to take a partial screenshot, this website will help you). - Copy this response that ChatGPT-created for Unit 1: Assignment #3 and paste it into the ChatGPT detector box. Take a partial screenshot of the ChatGPT detector’s output (meaning a screenshot of just the output, including the results bar, not your entire screen).
Seventh, to answer the question of whether you can use ChatGPT in this course: Yes, you can use it, but you must ALSO do the following:
- Apply critical thinking to anything ChatGPT tells you.
- Make a Gradebook Comment (not a Discussion Board post, but a Gradebook comment) telling the instructor and TAs whenever you have used ChatGPT and how you used it.
Eighth, in a Word doc, Google doc, Pages doc, or any other type of document:
- Describe how accurately ChatGPT answered each of the SIX UW-Madison questions.
- Paste in the two screenshots you made from the ChatGPT detector activity.
- Write the statement “I know that in this course I can use ChatGPT, but I must always apply critical thinking to anything ChatGPT tells me AND I must always make a Gradebook Comment (not a Discussion Board post, but a Gradebook Comment) telling the instructor and TAs whenever I have used ChatGPT and how I have used it.”
- Convert your Word doc, Google doc, Pages doc, or any other type of document to a PDF, named YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit01_ChatGPT.pdf
Artificially (Un?)Intelligent Essay Assignment (Communication Arts)
Prompt: Using ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/chat), you will ask the bot to write a song based on a course concept in the style of a popular band or artist. You will then analyze the response, by annotating/analyzing the interaction. In doing so, you will analyze how well/accurately ChatGPT covers the topic in question. You will also expand on what ChatGPT offers in its response by providing additional information on the topic in question, based on your knowledge of course materials and the use of sources from class and beyond. Ultimately, you will ask ChatGPT to:Write a song about [topic] in the style of [band or artist].Topic choices are: The History of the Internet, Technology, The Californian Ideology Band/Artist choice: Up to you (though ideally they’re popular enough that we know them)
ChatGPT Paper Guidelines and Steps to Complete:
- This option will take the form of an essay, interspersed with screenshots from ChatGPT
- Include a title page (your name, student number and section number on the first page)
- Begin the essay with a one paragraph introduction that summarizes some general reflections about the song and how well ChatGPT responded to the prompt. Try to create a thesis statement or argument about where you felt ChatGPT excelled or could improve.
- Then provide a screen shot of the 1st portion of the song ChatGPT outputs (e.g. Verse 1)
- Then provide one or two paragraphs of analysis of the screen shot/lyrics.
- Repeat this process for the Chorus, Verse 2, Bridge and Outro
- Your analysis should focus on the lyrics of the song, making note of what ChatGPT gets right and wrong about the topic you chose. You can also make note of how well it imitates the style of the artist you chose, though this should not be the focus of the essay.
- You should end with 1 paragraph reflecting on the process of working/writing with artificial intelligence as a partner.
- Your analysis should include at least 2 references to class material and 1 reference to an academic article from outside the class.
- In total, you should have between 4-5 screenshots from ChatGPT and about 5-6 pages (double-spaced) of analysis.
ChatGPT Paper Mechanics:
- Sign up for an account at https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/. Note, the site is often busy with lots of users, so refreshing multiple times, and not leaving the project to the last minute will be crucial.
- Start a chat with the chatbot. ChatGPT saves previous chats, but taking screenshots of conversations that you think will be used in your final essay will be a good idea. – We recommend playing around with a variety of different prompts and subprompts as you get used to how the system responds, before you get into the business of specifically asking it the question(s) you plan to for the final project.
ChatGPT Paper Rubric:
Content (10) – How well does the student analyze the ChatGPT output? Does the analysis have an intro paragraph that provides an overall assessment of the ChatGPT output and a clear conclusion at the end? Does the student simply describe what ChatGPT is outputting, or do they analyze/expand/critique the output? How in-depth/sophisticated an analysis of the flaws or successes of ChatGPT does the student provide? Does the essay have a clear overall argument or is it just a series of smaller analyses of specific song sections? How engaging is this argument?
Critical Theorist ChatGPT “Interview” Paper (Curriculum & Instruction)
While we have all heard of the risks and perils for using ChatGPT for academic work, there is also something quite thrilling about this technology and its natural language abilities. This assignment offers you an opportunity to “play” with AI and to experience the current possibilities and limits of this technology for yourself. Using ChatGPT, you will sign up here [link removed] to engage in a “dialogue” with a critical theorist of your choice (no more than 6 per theorist, first come, first served).
Each of these critical theorists brings a different approach to their approach to critique that I try to describe below.
- Gloria Anzaldúa (queer theorist, critical language theorist)
- Judith Butler (postfoundational philosopher and queer theorist)
- John Dewey (progressive philosopher)
- Michel Foucault (postfoundational philosopher and historian)
- Paulo Freire (critical pedagogue)
- bell hooks (feminist philosopher, activist, and critical pedagogue)
- Gloria Ladson-Billings (critical race theorist)
- Jacques Rancière (antiauthoritarian postfoundational theorist)
- Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (novelist, playwright, and decolonial theorist)
What Is the Purpose of the Interview?
The purpose of your interview is to engage the theorist in a discussion about the implications of their theory for teaching, schooling, and education.
How Do I Interview an AI?
Any good interview is only as good as the interviewer. And “conversing” with ChatGPT is no different. Your goal in the conversation is to ask a series of questions in the style of Fendler’s Edwin & Phyllis (Week 1’s reading) that “push” your ChatGPT-generated theorist to not only explicate their ideas, but to defend them against your challenges, criticisms, and concerns. Here’s how to do it?
- Create an account or login into ChatGPT here.
- Read about the limits of ChatGPT here. Remember ChatGPT is not “intelligent” like you or me. It is a probabilistic word finder. This is important to keep in mind when constructing your dialogue.
- Begin your interview by asking ChatGPT something like this: “Hi, ChatGPT. I’d like for you to pretend that you are [critical theorist]. I would like for you to answer my critical questions by drawing upon your knowledge of this person and their works to do so. Do you understand?” Also keep in mind that you may need to remind ChatGPT to phrase its responses as your critical theorist. Say something like, “remember to respond as if you are [critical theorist]. (N.B., These kinds of checks should not count towards your fifteen questions/prompts.)
- ChatGPT also has the tendency to blend an author’s stated position on issues with those who have written about them. You can try to check this by asking ChatGPT to make sure it is responding from the perspective of the theoretical framework of that author. You can say something like, “is this position actually stated by [critical theorist] or just your interpretation?” (N.B., These kinds of checks should not count towards your fifteen questions/prompts.)
- You should ask fifteen questions/prompts in order to thoroughly investigate your critical theorist’s positions and their justifications, particularly as they relate to teaching, schooling, and education.
What If I Get Stuck?
New (10/6/23): Read Chris’s model interview here. Leave comments or questions!
Interviewing requires research! Use the links above to learn a little more about your subject. This can help you formulate good questions. You may begin by asking a few orientation questions that help you get a sense of who this critical theorist is, an overview of their theory, and so forth.
Interviewers have an angle. Think of Edwin in Fendler’s Edwin and Phyllis. He’s not just passively asking questions, he’s also challenging, critiquing, and raising concerns about different aspects of Phyllis’s responses. Use this as a model. You can use starter phrases such as “I’m not sure I agree…” or “Isn’t it true that…” (N.B., You will get much better results if you are playful, curious, and inventive—rather than belittling or aggressive—in your interview strategies!)
Finally, you should also ask them to make direct comparisons to theories you have or are learning about in the course (e.g., if they are postfoundational, ask them what their problems with Marxism might be. If they are a queer theorist, ask how that relates to critical race theory, and so on).
Editing the Interview
ChatGPT has a penchant to go on (and on and on). We do NOT want to read lengthy transcripts of AI generated text; instead, we want to read a lively back and forth in the style of Edwin & Phyllis. The final interview should be no more than 1,000 words and should include at least fifteen questions or responses by you. Therefore, this will require careful and significant editing on your part since ChatGPT loves to gab.
Creating Critical Theorist ‘Wikis’
As part of the course aims to help you not simply receive knowledge but create it, you will excerpt at least two parts of your interview to help complete a ‘wiki’ page ‘about’ your chosen critical theorist. These Wiki pages can be edited by anyone and will be available on the Module page (scroll to the bottom of the section) for reference later in the course. I will review all information provided there and will edit out any inaccuracies. You will then be able to use these pages for your future assignments as a resource.
Cite yourself for any information you add from your interviews (“[last name], 2023, p. [X of interview]”)
Reflecting on the Task
In our own experiments with this assignment, we found that while the AI provided some reasonable approximations of the theorist’s positions on issues, it also tended to confuse theorists’ stated positions with those that other authors have written about them, but without referencing those other authors and theories. When you finish this assignment, we’ll ask you some questions to learn more about your experience with this task and the challenges you encountered in carrying it out.
Fill out this reflection AFTER you have completed all other aspects of the assignment.
This survey will not be graded but completing it will also count towards your final grade.
Assessment
You will be evaluated NOT by the ChatGPT content you generate but by the quality and depth of the questions YOU pose, and YOUR ability to link your questions to relevant course themes.
Following this exercise, you will post a selected excerpt from your interview to a page devoted to the Critical Theorist that everyone will be able to read and learn from.
Due 10/13 @ 5pm; 25% of grade. This assignment will take you longer than you might expect due to its unique multi-part design. Do not wait until the last minute, and check with your instructors if you have questions.
