Author: andy.rowell

A few current thoughts on how I’m thinking about AI and essay writing as a professor.
1) the only real answer is in class hand written tests or oral exams.
2) my essay prompts invite personal application from the readings. Grade lower if not there.
3) I emphasize to students that their digestion of the material is most important for their formation and future not a passable essay.
4) I can’t discern AI use perfectly. I tell students that if they learned to write academic papers formally or parrot back the answers to please the professor then it will look like AI. I need to see wrestling with the material: disagreeing, questioning, applying.
5) I think it helps to ask for analysis of a video and two different selections of writing for one essay (rather than just a textbook chapter summary, etc.). The AI is not great yet with finding and picking and analyzing a short quote from each resource in a way that looks human.

With my son studying abroad in Costa Rica like I was 29 years ago, I wanted to repost the obituary of Juan Stam from 2020, one of my heroes who I had the opportunity to speak with a number of times in 1996-1997.