Modernizing the Conventional Writing Task: Classes from One Professor’s Method on the College of Florida

As AI advances, faculties and universities should rethink how they assess scholar work whereas sustaining educational integrity. On the College of Florida, Professor and Affiliate Provost Dr. Brian Harfe noticed that conventional writing assignments in his large-enrollment common schooling course had been changing into more and more susceptible to AI-generated responses. As an alternative of resisting the expertise, he explored the way it could possibly be integrated into coursework in a means that supported scholar studying. Grammarly’s Authorship performance turned a key a part of his private method, selling transparency in scholar writing whereas encouraging college students to interact critically with AI.

The problem: Assessing the standard writing project within the period of AI

Dr. Harfe noticed a rising problem in his course: the fast growth of AI instruments posed new difficulties for assessing scholar understanding. Commonplace essay duties had been in danger as a result of AI may produce content material that mimicked scholar responses, making it tougher to evaluate comprehension and demanding considering precisely.

In response, Dr. Harfe redesigned his end-of-course evaluation to embody AI as a part of the method. Quite than ban AI use, he requested college students to generate an preliminary draft utilizing AI. College students had been then required to critique the AI’s output and revise it to replicate their very own private viewpoints and insights. This method maintained the unique scholar studying goals whereas eradicating the necessity to police AI utilization. It supplied a compelling studying alternative for college kids to discover the strengths and weaknesses of AI as a writing and considering instrument.

Initially, Dr. Harfe requested college students to point which components of their work had been AI-generated versus personally authored utilizing a handbook color-coding system. Nevertheless, this method had limitations. It positioned a burden on college students and launched the chance that some would possibly inaccurately signify their very own contributions. Dr. Harfe acknowledged the necessity for a extra dependable and scalable resolution.

The answer: Testing Grammarly Authorship within the classroom

When Dr. Harfe discovered that Grammarly Authorship was coming to market, he noticed a chance to construct on his early experiments. Authorship may automate the method of distinguishing between AI-generated and student-written textual content, eradicating the friction of handbook monitoring whereas offering deeper insights into how college students work together with AI-generated content material. He determined to make use of Authorship in his course to check each its sensible classroom software and its potential as a instructing instrument.

Built-in workflow steps:

• Preliminary AI draft: College students started their assignments by prompting an AI instrument to create an essay draft. This helped college students construction their considering and supplied a chance to judge the alignment between the AI’s perspective and their very own beliefs.
• Private modification: College students revised the AI-generated draft to higher replicate their very own views, including critique, perception, and evaluation. This inspired college students to maneuver past the passive use of AI and interact in reflective enhancing.
• Automated textual content attribution: Authorship mechanically categorized content material as both AI-generated or human-written in actual time. This eradicated the necessity for handbook shade coding and created a extra correct and goal document of authorship.
• Enhanced transparency: Authorship tracked how college students used revision and paraphrasing instruments and flagged any copy-pasted content material from exterior sources, offering extra context across the scholar’s writing course of.
• Actual-time analytics and replay: The instrument’s replay characteristic allowed Dr. Harfe to evaluate the evolution of every submission—watching how college students modified AI-generated textual content and added their very own considering. This created a extra full image of the scholar’s studying journey.

Outcomes: Reflections and observations

310 college students efficiently submitted last assignments utilizing Authorship, offering a big pattern of knowledge and scholar habits to evaluate.

• Engagement: Broad participation demonstrated scholar willingness to make use of AI transparently when given the construction and instruments to take action.
• Understanding: 90% of scholars reported that the Authorship information was straightforward to grasp and interpret.
• Scholar Insights: 79% discovered the Authorship report and replay characteristic worthwhile in reflecting on their very own writing course of.

“It’s actually essential to point out college students what AI can be utilized for: the great, the dangerous, the ugly, after which allow them to make choices on when and the way they need to use it of their future lives. Grammarly Authorship is a instrument that facilitates that course of for college in a extra collaborative means with college students.”

— Dr. Brian Harfe, Professor and Affiliate Provost, College of Florida

Classes discovered and future implications

Dr. Harfe’s method provides a worthwhile instance for different educators exploring methods to combine AI into instructing and evaluation meaningfully. His use of Authorship was exploratory in nature, rooted in curiosity about scholar studying and transparency quite than instrument promotion. The insights gained level to broader concerns for a way establishments can adapt to a altering panorama.

Key Classes:

• Adaptability: Instructing methods should evolve alongside expertise. Dr. Harfe’s project design embraced AI’s capabilities with out sacrificing the course’s core studying goals.
• Transparency and accountability: Authorship’s analytics and attribution helped scale back guesswork for college kids and instructors, permitting a extra clear evaluation of scholar effort and engagement.
• Vital engagement and scholar company: Structuring assignments to incorporate AI-enabled drafting adopted by scholar revision created house for reflective, crucial engagement—giving college students possession over each course of and product.

Conclusion

As AI instruments proceed to evolve, educators are looking for sensible methods to adapt their instructing with out compromising core values. Dr. Harfe’s course-level experimentation with Grammarly Authorship gives one such instance. His focus remained on serving to college students perceive methods to use AI thoughtfully, transparently, and in ways in which assist their very own studying.

Join with Dr. Brian Harfe to be taught extra about his analysis.