We found 25 results that contain "writing"
Posted on: #iteachmsu

Posted by
over 4 years ago
Writing Centers and Access: A Disability Justice Speaker Series" brings together the fields of composition, writing center studies, and disability studies to ask (and begin the process of answering) the question: How do writing centers engage the process of disability justice? Featuring world-renown disability studies scholars, the series seeks to generate conversation and provide community to teachers of writing, to writers, to writing center professionals, and to communities both on our campuses and beyond about the ways in which disability affects writers, writing, and higher education. The series is hosted by The Writing Center at MSU through the hard work of their Accessibility Committee, under the supervision of Dr. Karen Moroski-Rigney.
This series is still ongoing! The schedule and links to RSVP can be found in the upload below!
This series is still ongoing! The schedule and links to RSVP can be found in the upload below!
Posted on: #iteachmsu

Posted by
over 6 years ago
In what ways can mindfulness practices (reflective writing, noting) be integrated in student and instructor experiences across campus?
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: Making learning fun with H5P

Posted by
about 2 years ago
We are writing to invite you to join the pilot program for H5P’s D2L integration and a few special features.
Through CTLI’s Catalyst Innovation Program, we are giving out a limited number of free H5P.com accounts for faculty/grad students for this academic year. This will allow you to create lots of different types of activities, assign them to your students through D2L, have their grades automatically populated in the Gradebook (if desired), and also receive data about how your students interacted with the content.
The D2L H5P basic integration lets you:
Insert activities with one click directly into a D2L course (no more embed codes requiring activities to be public or going through another provider like Pressbooks)
Connect select activities with the D2L Gradebook
+ our subscription also includes these special features:
Detailed reports on how learners interact with the activity, no matter where the H5P activity is in the course (as a topic or in a page)
Let learners resume activities (especially useful for larger content types like Interactive Video/Course Presentation/Interactive Book)
+ Smart Import feature (AI) lets you import audio/text/video and you will get quick transcripts and suggested activities pre-built that will shorten activity creation time (currently only in English, more languages to be added soon).
Any activities you create via our pilot account using Smart AI, for example, can certainly be exported out to a different regular H5P account(s).
Some of you might have also looked into nolej.io recently (very similar to Smart Import), but we have been told that H5P.com is much better with regards to compliance, privacy, security and stability.
You could contact me (gacs@msu.edu) or Shannon Quinn (sdquinn@msu.edu) to request an account, you will be given a form to fill out listing any D2L course shells (development courses or communities would work too) where you would like to test the H5P integration.
Through CTLI’s Catalyst Innovation Program, we are giving out a limited number of free H5P.com accounts for faculty/grad students for this academic year. This will allow you to create lots of different types of activities, assign them to your students through D2L, have their grades automatically populated in the Gradebook (if desired), and also receive data about how your students interacted with the content.
The D2L H5P basic integration lets you:
Insert activities with one click directly into a D2L course (no more embed codes requiring activities to be public or going through another provider like Pressbooks)
Connect select activities with the D2L Gradebook
+ our subscription also includes these special features:
Detailed reports on how learners interact with the activity, no matter where the H5P activity is in the course (as a topic or in a page)
Let learners resume activities (especially useful for larger content types like Interactive Video/Course Presentation/Interactive Book)
+ Smart Import feature (AI) lets you import audio/text/video and you will get quick transcripts and suggested activities pre-built that will shorten activity creation time (currently only in English, more languages to be added soon).
Any activities you create via our pilot account using Smart AI, for example, can certainly be exported out to a different regular H5P account(s).
Some of you might have also looked into nolej.io recently (very similar to Smart Import), but we have been told that H5P.com is much better with regards to compliance, privacy, security and stability.
You could contact me (gacs@msu.edu) or Shannon Quinn (sdquinn@msu.edu) to request an account, you will be given a form to fill out listing any D2L course shells (development courses or communities would work too) where you would like to test the H5P integration.
Posted on: #iteachmsu

Posted by
almost 4 years ago
Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom
By Asao B. Inoue
Copy edited by Don Donahue. Designed by Mike Palmquist.
In Labor-Based Grading Contracts, Asao B. Inoue argues for the use of labor-based grading contracts along with compassionate practices to determine course grades as a way to do social justice work with students. He frames this practice by considering how Freirean problem-posing led him to experiment with grading contracts and explore the literature on grading contracts. Inoue offers a robust Marxian theory of labor that considers Hannah Arendt's theory of labor-work-action and Barbara Adam's concept of "timescapes." The heart of the book details the theoretical and practical ways labor-based grading contracts can be used and assessed for effectiveness in classrooms and programs. Inoue concludes the book by moving outside the classroom, considering how assessing writing in the socially just ways he offers in the book may provide a way to address the violence and discord seen in the world today.
Access FULL TEXT in attachment
Inoue, Asao B. (2019). Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom. The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2019.0216.0
Accessed via https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/labor/?fbclid=IwAR1ZJWZbLYuAU4aQhQ9xlBiIzbX60bGg_VGQwwnZImFUnofX1L5Il2Ec53w
By Asao B. Inoue
Copy edited by Don Donahue. Designed by Mike Palmquist.
In Labor-Based Grading Contracts, Asao B. Inoue argues for the use of labor-based grading contracts along with compassionate practices to determine course grades as a way to do social justice work with students. He frames this practice by considering how Freirean problem-posing led him to experiment with grading contracts and explore the literature on grading contracts. Inoue offers a robust Marxian theory of labor that considers Hannah Arendt's theory of labor-work-action and Barbara Adam's concept of "timescapes." The heart of the book details the theoretical and practical ways labor-based grading contracts can be used and assessed for effectiveness in classrooms and programs. Inoue concludes the book by moving outside the classroom, considering how assessing writing in the socially just ways he offers in the book may provide a way to address the violence and discord seen in the world today.
Access FULL TEXT in attachment
Inoue, Asao B. (2019). Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom. The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2019.0216.0
Accessed via https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/labor/?fbclid=IwAR1ZJWZbLYuAU4aQhQ9xlBiIzbX60bGg_VGQwwnZImFUnofX1L5Il2Ec53w
Posted on: GenAI & Education

Posted by
8 months ago
AI Commons Bulletin 1/15/2025
Human-curated news about generative AI for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
🧬 Use Case: A Structured Framework Requiring ChatGPT Use
Graduate students used ChatGPT for a project, following specific steps and justifying their choices. The assessment emphasized critical thinking. Students appreciated the structured framework, which helped them learn ChatGPT’s use and weaknesses effectively.
Learn More: https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2024.2421997
🔍 Explore a Self-Directed Learning Bot
Did you know you can create a customized version of ChatGPT for your students? An example is LearnGuide, created to add self-directed learning to a problem-based learning (PBL) medical curriculum. Students learned as well as or better than those who did not use the tool.
Learn More: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-oZ8zdPaKp-learnguide
✏️ Writing Improved When Assisted by AI
Subjects wrote stories with ChatGPT-3’s assistance. Those who modified AI suggestions produced higher-quality, less biased writing than those who accepted or rejected them outright. Researchers attribute this to higher-order thinking during modification.
Learn More: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.07200
🚫 Why Academics Don’t Use AI
A survey of UK academics found half did not use AI tools in their work because:
They didn’t know how to use AI or if it was allowed
Ethical issues relating to how AI works
Lack of time and interest
They prefer to do work themselves
Reject AI as dehumanizing
AI is inaccurate and can’t be trusted
Learn More: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-024-00524-x
Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).
Human-curated news about generative AI for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
🧬 Use Case: A Structured Framework Requiring ChatGPT Use
Graduate students used ChatGPT for a project, following specific steps and justifying their choices. The assessment emphasized critical thinking. Students appreciated the structured framework, which helped them learn ChatGPT’s use and weaknesses effectively.
Learn More: https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2024.2421997
🔍 Explore a Self-Directed Learning Bot
Did you know you can create a customized version of ChatGPT for your students? An example is LearnGuide, created to add self-directed learning to a problem-based learning (PBL) medical curriculum. Students learned as well as or better than those who did not use the tool.
Learn More: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-oZ8zdPaKp-learnguide
✏️ Writing Improved When Assisted by AI
Subjects wrote stories with ChatGPT-3’s assistance. Those who modified AI suggestions produced higher-quality, less biased writing than those who accepted or rejected them outright. Researchers attribute this to higher-order thinking during modification.
Learn More: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.07200
🚫 Why Academics Don’t Use AI
A survey of UK academics found half did not use AI tools in their work because:
They didn’t know how to use AI or if it was allowed
Ethical issues relating to how AI works
Lack of time and interest
They prefer to do work themselves
Reject AI as dehumanizing
AI is inaccurate and can’t be trusted
Learn More: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-024-00524-x
Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).
Posted on: GenAI & Education

Posted by
7 months ago
AI Commons Bulletin 2/5/2025
Human-curated news about generative AI for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
📝 Try This: Teach Students How to Direct AI to Write an Entire Paper Well
Zufelt (2025) proposes an A to Z strategy for quality writing, whether done manually or with AI. Students follow stages: Gather & Summarize, Prompt & Draft, Curate, Revise & Edit, Review, and Format, with clear instructions at each step.
Learn More: http://doi.org/10.1177/23294906241309846
🤖 The Education Revolution Through AI
AI holds immense potential in education, offering opportunities for personalized learning, task automation, and adaptive teaching. However, challenges such as bias, ethical concerns, and data privacy must be carefully addressed. Its applications are vast, spanning research, teaching, and course design integration.
Learn More: http://octaedro.com/libro/the-education-revolution-through-artificial-intelligence/
💬 Engage With Your Colleagues to Establish Your Strategy for AI in Teaching and Learning
The BYU theatre education faculty proactively explored AI’s role in their curriculum, adopting a shared perspective of AI as a multiplier to enhance their work. They established and shared a set of values on AI use with students, fostering clarity and alignment.
Learn More: Jensen in ArtsPraxis vol. 11, no. 2, p. 43. http://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/artspraxis/2024/volume-11-issue-2.
🎭 Try This: Make a Discussion of AI Ethics More “Real” For Your Students With Personas
To make ethical AI discussions relatable, create characters representing diverse perspectives on AI’s impact. For each character, detail:
* What they’ve heard or read about AI
* Their direct experiences with AI
* Their opinions and statements about AI
* Actions they’ve taken regarding AI
* Their skill level as an influencer, user, or researcher
Learn More: Prietch, S. S., et al. (2024). http://doi.org/10.47756/aihc.y9i1.142
Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).
Human-curated news about generative AI for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
📝 Try This: Teach Students How to Direct AI to Write an Entire Paper Well
Zufelt (2025) proposes an A to Z strategy for quality writing, whether done manually or with AI. Students follow stages: Gather & Summarize, Prompt & Draft, Curate, Revise & Edit, Review, and Format, with clear instructions at each step.
Learn More: http://doi.org/10.1177/23294906241309846
🤖 The Education Revolution Through AI
AI holds immense potential in education, offering opportunities for personalized learning, task automation, and adaptive teaching. However, challenges such as bias, ethical concerns, and data privacy must be carefully addressed. Its applications are vast, spanning research, teaching, and course design integration.
Learn More: http://octaedro.com/libro/the-education-revolution-through-artificial-intelligence/
💬 Engage With Your Colleagues to Establish Your Strategy for AI in Teaching and Learning
The BYU theatre education faculty proactively explored AI’s role in their curriculum, adopting a shared perspective of AI as a multiplier to enhance their work. They established and shared a set of values on AI use with students, fostering clarity and alignment.
Learn More: Jensen in ArtsPraxis vol. 11, no. 2, p. 43. http://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/artspraxis/2024/volume-11-issue-2.
🎭 Try This: Make a Discussion of AI Ethics More “Real” For Your Students With Personas
To make ethical AI discussions relatable, create characters representing diverse perspectives on AI’s impact. For each character, detail:
* What they’ve heard or read about AI
* Their direct experiences with AI
* Their opinions and statements about AI
* Actions they’ve taken regarding AI
* Their skill level as an influencer, user, or researcher
Learn More: Prietch, S. S., et al. (2024). http://doi.org/10.47756/aihc.y9i1.142
Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).
Posted on: GenAI & Education

Posted by
6 months ago
AI Commons Bulletin 3/12/2025
🔊 MSU IT Announces ChatGPT and Gemini “Coming Soon”
The new AI page on tech.msu.edu teases that Gemini and ChatGPT are “coming soon” But it is unclear if the applications will be available for purchase or if the campus community will have free access of the latest foundational models.
Learn More: https://tech.msu.edu/technology/ai/
✍️ Departments at Johns Hopkins Integrated AI into their Curriculum Development Process
It’s like experiential learning for faculty – integrate AI into a standard task that you need to do anyway. Also has a list of very concrete bite-sized learning objectives for learning to use AI, like: name 3 chatbots, start a chat, list 3 ways to make a better prompt.
Learn More: Khamis, N., et al. (2025). More intelligent faculty development: Integrating GenAI in curriculum development programs. Medical Teacher, 1–3.
⚙️ AI Tools Are Being Used for All Stages of the Scientific Research Process
This working paper gives quite in-depth description of several AI tools being used for each of step of the research cycle: (1) lit review, (2) generating research ideas, (3) conducting experiments, (4) generating multimodal content, and (5) conducting peer-review. Recommended to get a good lay of the land.
Learn More: Eger, S., et al. (2025). Transforming Science with Large Language Models: A Survey on AI-assisted Scientific Discovery, Experimentation, Content Generation, and Evaluation.
📈 Grammarly Acquires Coda: From Writing Assistant to AI Productivity
Grammarly, popular with students and educators as a writing assistant software, just purchased the AI productivity company Coda. While Grammarly has previously positioned itself as a teaching tool for writing, this acquisition signals a move towards an AI productivity platform.
Learn More: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/company/grammarly-acquires-coda/
Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).
🔊 MSU IT Announces ChatGPT and Gemini “Coming Soon”
The new AI page on tech.msu.edu teases that Gemini and ChatGPT are “coming soon” But it is unclear if the applications will be available for purchase or if the campus community will have free access of the latest foundational models.
Learn More: https://tech.msu.edu/technology/ai/
✍️ Departments at Johns Hopkins Integrated AI into their Curriculum Development Process
It’s like experiential learning for faculty – integrate AI into a standard task that you need to do anyway. Also has a list of very concrete bite-sized learning objectives for learning to use AI, like: name 3 chatbots, start a chat, list 3 ways to make a better prompt.
Learn More: Khamis, N., et al. (2025). More intelligent faculty development: Integrating GenAI in curriculum development programs. Medical Teacher, 1–3.
⚙️ AI Tools Are Being Used for All Stages of the Scientific Research Process
This working paper gives quite in-depth description of several AI tools being used for each of step of the research cycle: (1) lit review, (2) generating research ideas, (3) conducting experiments, (4) generating multimodal content, and (5) conducting peer-review. Recommended to get a good lay of the land.
Learn More: Eger, S., et al. (2025). Transforming Science with Large Language Models: A Survey on AI-assisted Scientific Discovery, Experimentation, Content Generation, and Evaluation.
📈 Grammarly Acquires Coda: From Writing Assistant to AI Productivity
Grammarly, popular with students and educators as a writing assistant software, just purchased the AI productivity company Coda. While Grammarly has previously positioned itself as a teaching tool for writing, this acquisition signals a move towards an AI productivity platform.
Learn More: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/company/grammarly-acquires-coda/
Bulletin items compiled by MJ Jackson and Sarah Freye with production assistance from Lisa Batchelder. Get the AI-Commons Bulletin on our Microsoft Teams channel, at aicommons.commons.msu.edu, or by email (send an email to aicommons@msu.edu with the word “subscribe”).
Posted on: #iteachmsu

Posted by
about 4 years ago
In a conscious attempt during the last two or three years to include high impact teaching practices as part of the courses I teach here at MSU, I have my students write reflections on their individual assignments each week, team reflections for their three collaborative projects, and an individual semester reflection during Week 15. Here are the guidelines I provide each week to help individual students (or student learning teams) craft their reflections:
Guidelines for Writing an Effective Reflection and Self-Critique
For your team-based project reflection that is part of this assignment – or individually written semester reflection -- develop and refine two FULL pages in which you discuss the following:
• For you introduction, describe the project in general and your respective activities associated with it.
• Briefly describe the projects, process and skills you will talk about.
• Explain three aspects of the project that your team members found most enjoyable and why.
• Explain three processes used for the project described above. Describe how the processes were challenging and rewarding for your team members.
• What are one or possibly two things you might change about your contribution to the project in question. Why?
• Explain three skills your various team members gained or improved upon during the semester. These do not have to relate to what you have discussed already, but they can.
• Describe why you find these new or improved skills interesting, useful, enjoyable, and/or challenging.
• If there was a problem of some kind, how might you handle it more proactively next time around?
• In your conclusion, do not simply summarize what you have already said. Answer the implied “So, what?” question.
• Leave yourself (and your reader) with something to think about.
• Remember, this is not a forum to complain about other members of your team, assignments, the course, the instructor, or previous grades. Your team should reflect on its work habits, processes, and related choices made.
In addition to the guidelines above, I have also embedded a brief video from Essay Pro into each weekly course module, which includes additional explanation and examples of what reflective essays are and how to write them. Here is the link for those who might be interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH5W0iaayRo
Guidelines for Writing an Effective Reflection and Self-Critique
For your team-based project reflection that is part of this assignment – or individually written semester reflection -- develop and refine two FULL pages in which you discuss the following:
• For you introduction, describe the project in general and your respective activities associated with it.
• Briefly describe the projects, process and skills you will talk about.
• Explain three aspects of the project that your team members found most enjoyable and why.
• Explain three processes used for the project described above. Describe how the processes were challenging and rewarding for your team members.
• What are one or possibly two things you might change about your contribution to the project in question. Why?
• Explain three skills your various team members gained or improved upon during the semester. These do not have to relate to what you have discussed already, but they can.
• Describe why you find these new or improved skills interesting, useful, enjoyable, and/or challenging.
• If there was a problem of some kind, how might you handle it more proactively next time around?
• In your conclusion, do not simply summarize what you have already said. Answer the implied “So, what?” question.
• Leave yourself (and your reader) with something to think about.
• Remember, this is not a forum to complain about other members of your team, assignments, the course, the instructor, or previous grades. Your team should reflect on its work habits, processes, and related choices made.
In addition to the guidelines above, I have also embedded a brief video from Essay Pro into each weekly course module, which includes additional explanation and examples of what reflective essays are and how to write them. Here is the link for those who might be interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH5W0iaayRo
Pedagogical Design