ChatGPT broke my essay! Crowdsourcing strategies for teaching writing in the AI age
Session Type
Presentation
Room
Physics and Astronomy, room 106
Start Date
17-7-2025 1:30 PM
End Date
17-7-2025 2:00 PM
Keywords
Generative AI, AI, ChatGPT, Writing, Communication, Essay
Primary Threads
Curriculum
Abstract
ChatGPT broke the essay. In SCIE 113, the required BSc communication course at UBC, students increasingly outsource traditional 5-paragraph argumentative essays to generative AI, undermining authentic learning. Our challenge: shifting assignments from the final written product—easily AI-generated—to the meaningful process of scientific thinking, researching, revising and writing itself. How can we design activities that engage students deeply in scientific argumentation and communication skills? Can we leverage AI tools constructively, rather than compete with them? And how do we balance innovative approaches with expectations for substantial written assignments? In this session, we’ll briefly share what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what barriers we face. Then we’ll open the floor: What’s happening in your classrooms? How are you designing assignments that support authentic writing in a world of AI? Let’s crowdsource strategies and imagine a new path forward for writing instruction.
Elements of Engagement
Participants will be invited to share what strategies they have used in their classroom:
- To help learners buy-in to putting in the effort of writing themselves and learning to write;
- To focus on the process of writing, as opposed to its product;
- To best leverage AI while still helping students build scientific writing skills;
- To shift the curriculum in light of the syllabus expectations that we are still teaching long-form essay writing.
These discussions will occur in small groups first, following by larger whole group debrief and discussion.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
ChatGPT broke my essay! Crowdsourcing strategies for teaching writing in the AI age
Physics and Astronomy, room 106
ChatGPT broke the essay. In SCIE 113, the required BSc communication course at UBC, students increasingly outsource traditional 5-paragraph argumentative essays to generative AI, undermining authentic learning. Our challenge: shifting assignments from the final written product—easily AI-generated—to the meaningful process of scientific thinking, researching, revising and writing itself. How can we design activities that engage students deeply in scientific argumentation and communication skills? Can we leverage AI tools constructively, rather than compete with them? And how do we balance innovative approaches with expectations for substantial written assignments? In this session, we’ll briefly share what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what barriers we face. Then we’ll open the floor: What’s happening in your classrooms? How are you designing assignments that support authentic writing in a world of AI? Let’s crowdsource strategies and imagine a new path forward for writing instruction.