Article: Course and Assignment Design

ChatGPT Just Got Better. What Does That Mean for Our Writing Assignments?


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In this article by Anna Mills, you will find sobering, yet hopeful suggestions for any instructor seeking to create writing assignments that encourage genuine learning. This advice-rich article on AI and writing assignment design is a “must-read.”

A lot of academics were in the midst of devising policies and testing pedagogical responses to ChatGPT — the chatbot released in November that generates plausible-sounding, original text at a user’s command — when OpenAI this month announced a new version of the underlying software: GPT-4. It’s all been a bit dizzying. But as a writing instructor of 17 years, I was among those who tested the new version over the past six months. So I want to share a few observations on what to expect, how the update should affect our response to ChatGPT, and what this jump in sophistication suggests for the future.