AI as a collaborative partner for faculty in developing students’ critical reading & writing skills

This presentation explores how AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, can serve as collaborative partners for faculty in designing structured reading and writing assignments for an Introductory Academic Writing course. Rather than replacing faculty expertise, AI supports instructors in crafting questions, structuring exercises, and providing feedback that fosters deeper student engagement, internalized understanding, and critical thinking.

The session will address key distinctions between AI-assisted and traditionally faculty-generated assignments, highlighting both the benefits and limitations of AI in this context. By analyzing how AI-generated prompts, scaffolding techniques, and feedback mechanisms compare with faculty-designed approaches, the presentation will offer a critical perspective on AI’s role in academic pedagogy. The session will also incorporate student perspectives on how these faculty-designed, AI-supported assignments impacted their learning experience.

Key highlights include:

• AI as a faculty aid – Using AI to assist with generating targeted questions, structuring critical reading exercises, and refining assignment design.
• Comparing AI-generated vs. faculty-generated materials – Evaluating the ways AI contributes to deeper analysis beyond comprehension-based tasks.
• Ethical and pedagogical considerations – Discussing where AI enhances instructional design and where faculty expertise remains irreplaceable.
• Benefits and shortcomings – Addressing AI’s strengths in efficiency and adaptability, as well as its limitations in pedagogical nuance.

Attendees will take away concrete strategies for:

• Ethically and effectively integrating AI to support assignment design without compromising instructional goals.
• Utilizing AI to enhance, not replace, faculty expertise in fostering deep reading, reflection, and critical engagement.
• Developing intentional, equity-focused approaches to AI in academic settings.

By positioning AI as a pedagogical collaborator for faculty, this session offers a nuanced exploration of its potential to enrich teaching while maintaining a critical lens on its limitations.