CFP: Continuing Experiments in Teaching with Text Generation Technologies

In August 2023, WAC Clearinghouse published our co-edited collection TextGenEd: Teaching with Text Generation Technologies (Eds. Vee, Laquintano, Schnitzler), a collection of early experiments in pedagogy with generative text technology, including but not limited to AI. The fully open access and peer-reviewed collection features 34 undergraduate-level assignments to support students' AI literacy, rhetorical and ethical engagements, creative exploration, and professional writing text generation technology, along with an Introduction to guide instructors' understanding and their selection of what to emphasize in their courses. TextGenEd enables teachers to integrate text generation technologies into their courses and respond to this crucial moment.

In the spirit of those pedagogical experimentations with text gen tech, we invite submissions for writing assignments using a range of text generation technologies (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Markov chains, various Python libraries, etc.) to be included in a new publication, Continuing Experiments, our way of expanding and updating the original collection. The work of teaching writing is a constant process of experimentation, revision, and collaboration, particularly when teaching with technologies that shift and evolve quickly.

Contributions could include assignments that ask students to: 

  • Compose with online interfaces such as Sudowrite to brainstorm, produce, or edit text
  • Analyze the output of LLMs (large language models) such as ChatGPT and compare it to human writing
  • Probe biases in the output of LLMs and other text generation technologies
  • Explore the ethical implications of text generation technologies through hands-on work
  • Draft policies that delineate the ethical uses of text generation technologies in writing education
  • Trace implementations of text generation technologies in writing software
  • Use text generation technologies for game design and critique
  • Do anything else related to text generation technologies! 

We welcome contributions from across the undergraduate and graduate curriculum—anywhere writing is taught, including in creative, academic, technical, legal, composition, linguistic, historical, and computational contexts. As with the original collection, Continuing Experiments will attend to a diversity of student and teacher backgrounds and aims to be as accessible as possible. All accepted assignments will be made fully open access and free online, licensed CC-BY-NC. Assignments must have been taught at least once before submission.

Submission Details

Please visit the TextGenEd collection for example assignments. Each submitted assignment should include: 

  • An abstract (~250 words) that provides a brief introduction to the assignment and the teacher's experiment, including description of how many times it's been taught, in what context, with what outcomes (it must have been taught at least once, and we embrace failed assignments!)
  • An "assignment in brief" table that includes short response answers to: Learning Goals; Original Assignment Context; Materials Needed; and Time Frame
  • Acknowledgments for any assignment, collaborator, curriculum designer, researcher or publication that influenced the assignment 
  • Assignment in a format that could be adapted by others (using a CC-BY-NC license). These should be ~2 pages

Publication Details

Assignments will be reviewed by an editorial team led by Carly Schnitzler and including the other editors of the TextGenEd collection (Annette Vee and Tim Laquintano) before being published in Continuing Experiments. We (eds.) will publish selected and edited submissions annually, before the start of the academic calendar in August. Review for August publication will begin May 31.

Please contact Carly Schnitzler at cschnit1@jh.edu with any questions or suggestions for Continuing Experiments. We are so looking forward to see how you're experimenting!

Submit your experiment here