Elizabeth Velasquez
Ohio State University
This assignment asks students to engage with multiple AI tools at different steps in the writing process. In doing so, it introduces students to the limitations of text generative AI and encourages students to maintain a process-oriented approach to writing. Helping students broaden their AI tool kit allows them to maintain ownership of the things they create and encourages them to critically engage with AI-generated content.
Learning Goals
Original Assignment Context: Mid-level digital media course
Materials Needed: Access to a variety of AI tools, recommendations are provided within the text of the assignment. I also recommend making a single classroom account for each tool used, which can be shared among students in order to better protect student data and streamline the assignment process.
Time Frame: ~1 week (2/3 class periods)
Overview
In many classrooms, the value of writing lies in the process, especially as students learn to refine their argumentation or consider multiple audiences. The introduction of large language models, like ChatGPT, undermine this by offering quick, seemingly magical solutions. However, pivoting toward AI-augmented writing, as opposed to AI-generated writing, can reintroduce these learning outcomes.
Though it may seem counter-intuitive, an AI-augmented writing process can be achieved by introducing students to more AI tools. Diversifying AI portfolios helps students understand that different tools can be better suited for different tasks within the writing process. Students can deconstruct the 'magic' of AI, taking greater control over the inputs/outputs. In addition to pedagogical benefits, this approach aligns with the limitations of AI technology, which often struggle with complex tasks like research-based writing.
The following assignment was taught once in a mid-level Digital Media Composing course in the Fall of 2023. This assignment was given during an AI-dedicated unit. Students already learned about the training processes of AI, and the class had considered some ethical and legal concerns with training data, energy usage, etc. Students were also familiar with the basic production process of a generative AI.
The post-work discussion centered around how surprised students were with the differences between the two essays. Every student accurately guessed which paper was AI-augmented vs AI-generated. Students also revealed their responses to the pre-unit question, “which part of the writing process do you feel you’re best/worst at,” verbalizing their intentions to use AI tools to augment the parts of writing that they struggled with, but stated that they were unlikely to use them with the tasks they felt more comfortable completing. Students felt that this approach would enable them to overcome issues of procrastination or writer’s block.
Discussion/Pre-Work
Begin by asking your students to respond to the following question:
My students came up with the following steps: research, outlining, drafting/writing, editing.
In groups, ask students to discuss the following:
My students discussed that a successful researcher knows how to operate tools like Google or the school library. They also know how to read and interpret texts of varying complexities. My students provided similar lists for the other steps.
Ask students to reflect on the following:
The Assignment
Ask students to select a topic they are interested in learning more about, or assign a topic relevant to your course.
My students used this assignment to continue exploring the topics of their final research project, which asked students to investigate an online phenomena they found interesting. This resulted in projects ranging from the very technical, like process in memory computing, to the more pop culture, like One Direction fan fiction, to the philosophical, like the ethics of true crime media. Allowing the students to use this project to explore their diverse interests demonstrated the versatility of AI, and choosing topics that the student already understood demonstrated the unreliability of AI. Especially during the outlining and drafting stages, students were able to identify information that misrepresented or outright contradicted what they had previously discovered.
Provide your students access to some or several of the tools suggested below. Using a different tool for each step of the process, ask students to attempt to write a 3-paragraph essay on the chosen topic. Example prompts have been provided as well, but students should be encouraged to adjust their prompts based on their topic and the AI’s return for best results.
After each step is completed, instruct your students to review the returned text and make adjustments to the content as they feel is necessary to produce the best paper. This may mean correcting certain information, rewriting/editing sentences, reorganizing paragraphs, or any number of possible tweaks. Students should make a minimum of two changes to the return at every step before moving forward, but it is likely that more will be needed.
Once any adjustments have been made, instruct your students to move on to the next step in the writing process and to a different AI tool.
It may be useful for students to use multiple tools within each step. For example, in the research step, students could request links to scholarly sources from Perplexity AI and input those links to Explain Paper to receive a summary of the source.
Step 1: Research
“recommend resources for learning more about [topic], provide links to sources” / “what should I know about [topic] before writing a research paper, provide links to sources”
Step 2: Outlining
“Create an outline for a 3-paragraph essay on [topic], make sure to include space to discuss [sub-topic 1] and [sub-topic 2], ” where sub-topics 1 and 2 are based on what students learned during the research stage.
Step 3: Drafting/Writing
“Based on the following outline, draft a 3-paragraph essay on [topic]. Write in a formal, academic tone suited for an undergraduate course.”
Step 4: Editing
“Read the following paper and suggest edits. Focus on clarity, concision, and accuracy.”
Discussion/Post-Work
After completing this process, instruct the students to return to their favorite AI tool to generate a second 3-paragraph essay on the same topic. Do not allow the students to make any changes to this second essay.
Then, instruct your students to pass the two papers, the AI-augmented paper and the AI-generated paper, to another student. Ask the students to read both papers and respond to the following questions: