To AI or not to AI: That is the question in writing classes

With the frenzy caused by ChatGPT and similar AI, it’s worth rethinking how we teach writing and create writing assignments, especially given the emergence of several camps within academia: those who wish to ban such AI, those who want to create assignments that can’t be done using it, and those who want to use it to transform the learning experience. In Spring 2022-2023 I experimented with different types of writing assignments. Some were devised in ways to make it extremely difficult for students to use ChatGPT or similar AI while others actually required students to use ChatGPT or similar AI. This session details how these assignments were designed and shares the results of these different approaches to try to pinpoint which work best in terms of enriching student learning and forecasting the future of university-level writing.