Aggie AI: Write Launching with a Workshop Series

The Center for Instructional Design and Innovation (CIDI) and the English Department have been working together to create the Aggie AI: Write app to help students use AI as a tool in their writing and help teachers understand how their students are using it.

Russ Winn, lecturer in the English Department, said CIDI approached the department in 2022 to discuss how English instructors were planning on using AI and what ways it could be used in class. Russ reflects, “Rachel Quistberg and I spent quite a bit of time in discussions about what it could look like and the best ways to implement it based on the thoughts and research of leaders in our field. A Canvas app called the Writing Coach came out of those meetings.”

CIDI and Russ worked together on this app before presenting on it at a conference in Florida. Following the presentation, they have been working on revising it and figuring out the logistics of incorporating the tool into classrooms.

The app was tested on key stakeholders, like the USU Writing Center, the USU Writing Fellows, the USU Library, and committees for English 1010, 2010, 2020, and Concurrent Enrollment. It was also tested on students in Rosa Thornley’s English 2020 class and was renamed Aggie AI: Write after a group of students reflected on the possibility of the tool being extended to other areas of academics. Russ says, “The idea behind that is that Aggie AI is now an umbrella term for things that might be developed later, like Aggie AI: Research or Aggie AI: Study.”

Russ will be holding workshops for USU faculty, graduate students, and high school faculty affiliated with USU who have interest in adding Aggie AI: Write to their Canvas courses. Russ explains: “I'll be leading them through a demonstration, discussing ethical and technical challenges, and just trying to get a dialogue going. If we can get it into some writing classes there's a possibility that it could spread to other disciplines and give us some research opportunities. Interested students should ask their English classes about whether it's an option for them and direct interested educators to contact me or CIDI.”