Exploring the use of ChatGPT as a Research & Writing Collaborator in a Freshman WI course
Project Overview
This project aims to investigate the effectiveness of integrating ChatGPT as a research and writing collaborator in a first-year Writing Intensive (WI) course. The research questions are structured around ChatGPT's potential in aiding students' research and writing skills, with a focus on generalizable questions related to research and writing, as well as internal questions specific to the Sustainable Ag & Food Systems major at UMN.
Three AI-supported writing activities are proposed to aid students in completing an 8-page research paper: developing research skills, prompt engineering, and using ChatGPT for keywords, source evaluation, and literature review. The project also includes a pre-assignment and post-assignment survey to measure the impact of ChatGPT on students' confidence, perceptions, and attitudes toward research and writing skills.
For the third research question, the focus shifts to assessing how ChatGPT aligns with the programmatic writing goals of the Sustainable Ag & Food Systems major. The project aims to identify relevant writing abilities, assess student perceptions of ChatGPT's assistance, and evaluate student performance against grading rubrics.