In this section, you will learn about the importance of ethical considerations and implications of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), particularly Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. This section highlights that LLMs are not inherently good or bad. Instead, the importance of user engagement in ethical practices is emphasized to ensure responsible use of these tools.

Ethical considerations for educators include attention to student privacy, expectations, and consequences—all of which should clearly be defined in syllabus statements, classroom policies, or institutional statements. Meanwhile, ethical implications exist involving varying ethical standards for how people approach LLMs differently, how human and machine bias influence GenAI, and how style guides differ on citing information garnered from ChatGPT.

After reading this section, you should be able to articulate your own ethical queries and concerns related to LLMs, such as ChatGPT, both as a general user and an educator.

Author: C. Anneke Snyder
Contributors: Gwendolyn Inocencio, Mary Landry, Jonahs Kneitly
Designers: Irene AI, Sweta Kailani
Supervisors: Terri Pantuso, Sarah LeMire

This two-part resource is designed to support instructors and students as they navigate the presence of generative AI tools, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, in the rhetoric and composition classroom. Part I of this resource offers an instructor-focused introduction to what LLMs are and how they operate, as well as an in-depth exploration of the privacy concerns and ethical considerations related to using a tool like ChatGPT. Additionally, Part I provides insights on the practical application of LLMs within the realm of reading and writing in the rhetoric and composition classroom, while promoting a modified stasis theory as a strategy for evaluating any generated output.

Part II of this resource offers student-focused tutorials that demonstrate how ChatGPT can augment the writing process for assignments commonly given in a rhetoric and composition course. These tutorials cover the evaluation essay, rhetorical analysis, Rogerian argument, annotated bibliography, and research essay—all while promoting the responsible and ethical use of AI in writing and research. With this comprehensive resource, instructors and students can not only build confidence in their understanding of generative AI within academia, but also build digital literacy that will serve them in the world beyond.

In this section, we will examine how generative AI (GenAI) tools may assist with academic reading and research. Examples of content generated by ChatGPT will show how GenAI may be incorporated into a classroom setting. Each section offers suggestions for use and various strategies that could be incorporated for those who wish to allow the use of these tools for assignments. Included throughout are suggestions on how to promote students’ ethical and effective use of these tools and to possibly limit their use if desired. By the end of this section, you should be able to use GenAI to support reading practices.

Author: Jonahs Kneitly
Contributors: Gwendolyn Inocencio, Mary Landry, C. Anneke Snyder
Designers: Irene AI, Sweta Kailani
Supervisors: Terri Pantuso, Sarah LeMire

In this section, illustrative examples from ChatGPT show how to incorporate Large Language Models (LLMs) into the writing process while considering ethical concerns associated with such tools, namely avoiding plagiarism or exploitation of AI-generated content. The advent of public access to LLMs means they are now a critically important aspect of digital information literacy. As such, this technology must be addressed in the composition classroom with guided instruction. We recommend a strategy that models application of a modified version of stasis theory to all LLM-generated content.

After reading this section you should be prepared to teach stasis theory as a strategy for continual interrogation that helps rhetors discern whether generative-AI content exhibits appropriate depth, scope, and quality, along with the appropriate next steps in argumentation, writing, or research.

Author: Gwendolyn Inocencio
Contributors: C. Anneke Snyder, Mary Landry, Jonahs Kneitly
Designers: Irene AI, Shweta Kailani
Supervisors: Terri Pantuso, Sarah LeMire

This section is designed to build confidence about what Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) means for the future of education by closely studying the operations, limitations, and theoretical value of a Large Language Model (LLM) like ChatGPT. To this end, this section seeks to explain what language modeling is and how this process contributes to an LLM’s tendency to generate inaccurate information. Additionally, this section considers how the design of an LLM—specifically, the collective knowledge it is trained upon—can contribute to the perpetuation of biases. Lastly, this section encourages critical thinking about the value of an LLM from a theoretical standpoint regarding the writing process and collaborative learning. By the end of this section, you should be able to articulate how an LLM like ChatGPT operates, as well as the value and limitations of this design within the evolution of learning.

Author: Mary Landry
Contributors: Gwendolyn Inocencio, C. Anneke Snyder, Jonahs Kneitly
Designers: Irene AI, Shweta Kailani
Supervisors: Terri Pantuso, Sarah LeMire

In this section, you will gain insights about privacy and confidentiality concerns related to a form of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) known as Large Language Models (LLMs) and, specifically, OpenAI’s policies about ChatGPT.

The full extent of privacy and confidentiality risks in relation to ChatGPT, which relies on collective intelligence for information gathering and dissemination, has not been fully realized. Users should be mindful of OpenAI’s terms of use, particularly as those terms are subject to change. Though OpenAI claims to not share private user information, the language around such statements is vague and contradictory, and there is a strong possibility that personal information may be monitored by human proctors. Moreover, educators who are bound to the legal obligations outlined in FERPA should be particularly concerned about how student privacy could be potentially violated by using ChatGPT and other GenAI technologies.

After reading this section, you should be able to articulate and discuss OpenAI’s significant terms of use and privacy policy, consider the potential privacy and intellectual property violations contained within the collective intelligence paradigm, and communicate your own concerns about privacy and confidentiality in relation to GenAI technologies.

Author: C. Anneke Snyder
Contributors: Gwendolyn Inocencio, Mary Landry, Jonahs Kneitly
Designers: Irene AI, Sweta Kailani
Supervisors: Terri Pantuso, Sarah LeMire

This folder contains assignments related to the researched position paper and annotated bibliography used at Texas A&M University for freshman composition.

Attached is a sample syllabus used for freshman composition by Dr. Terri Pantuso at Texas A&M University. This course is typically the second in the first year writing sequence and focuses on argumentation and information literacy. 

This unit is for teaching a rhetorical visual analysis. It includes the assignment and peer review instructions, assessment rubrics, and a graphic organizer for workshopping the process. It is one way to assess for visual communication skills as required in the Texas Core Objectives. 

This resource offers student-focused tutorials that demonstrate how ChatGPT can augment the writing process for assignments commonly given in a rhetoric and composition course. These tutorials cover the evaluation essay, rhetorical analysis, Rogerian argument, annotated bibliography, and research essay—all while promoting the responsible and ethical use of AI in writing and research. With this comprehensive resource, instructors and students can not only build confidence in their understanding of generative AI within academia, but also build digital literacy that will serve them in the world beyond.

Author: Mary Landry

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to utilize a specific formation of generative AI (GenAI)—the prominent Large Language Model (LLM) ChatGPT—as an aid within the annotated bibliography writing process to

explore, evaluate, and refine a research question
brainstorm and determine effective search components and keywords
decipher complex ideas within academic articles

Additionally, you will critically reflect on ChatGPT’s place within the citation practices of an annotated bibliography. Specifically, you will consider why and how ChatGPT should be cited according to both MLA and APA.

This resource offers student-focused tutorials that demonstrate how ChatGPT can augment the writing process for assignments commonly given in a rhetoric and composition course. These tutorials cover the evaluation essay, rhetorical analysis, Rogerian argument, annotated bibliography, and research essay—all while promoting the responsible and ethical use of AI in writing and research. With this comprehensive resource, instructors and students can not only build confidence in their understanding of generative AI within academia, but also build digital literacy that will serve them in the world beyond.

Author: Mary Landry

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to utilize a specific formation of generative AI (GenAI)—the prominent Large Language Model (LLM) ChatGPT—as an aid within the evaluation essay writing process to

develop specific assessment criteria
maintain a professional, unbiased tone
articulate the sociohistorical context of a subject

Additionally, you will be able to identify specific limitations with using ChatGPT for an evaluation essay, including its limited ability to perform evaluations itself.

This resource offers student-focused tutorials that demonstrate how ChatGPT can augment the writing process for assignments commonly given in a rhetoric and composition course. These tutorials cover the evaluation essay, rhetorical analysis, Rogerian argument, annotated bibliography, and research essay—all while promoting the responsible and ethical use of AI in writing and research. With this comprehensive resource, instructors and students can not only build confidence in their understanding of generative AI within academia, but also build digital literacy that will serve them in the world beyond.

Author: Mary Landry

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to utilize a specific formation of generative AI (GenAI)—the prominent Large Language Model (LLM) ChatGPT—as an aid within the research paper writing process to

survey the ongoing discourse of research on a given topic
draft with different reasoning strategies
integrate sources and quotes

Additionally, you will critically reflect on the possible pitfalls in regards to originality and time management when using ChatGPT as an aid for composing a research paper.

This resource offers student-focused tutorials that demonstrate how ChatGPT can augment the writing process for assignments commonly given in a rhetoric and composition course. These tutorials cover the evaluation essay, rhetorical analysis, Rogerian argument, annotated bibliography, and research essay—all while promoting the responsible and ethical use of AI in writing and research. With this comprehensive resource, instructors and students can not only build confidence in their understanding of generative AI within academia, but also build digital literacy that will serve them in the world beyond.

Author: Jonahs Kneitly

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to utilize a specific formation of generative AI (GenAI)—the prominent Large Language Model (LLM) ChatGPT—as an aid within the rhetorical analysis writing process to

identify rhetorical situations and strategies
evaluate applied logic within a text
locate bias and logical fallacies within a text

Additionally, you will be able to develop critical evaluation skills to avoid the possible pitfalls from using GenAI for performing rhetorical analysis.

This resource offers student-focused tutorials that demonstrate how ChatGPT can augment the writing process for assignments commonly given in a rhetoric and composition course. These tutorials cover the evaluation essay, rhetorical analysis, Rogerian argument, annotated bibliography, and research essay—all while promoting the responsible and ethical use of AI in writing and research. With this comprehensive resource, instructors and students can not only build confidence in their understanding of generative AI within academia, but also build digital literacy that will serve them in the world beyond.

Author: Jonahs Kneitly

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to utilize a specific formation of generative AI (GenAI)—the prominent Large Language Model (LLM) ChatGPT—as an aid within the Rogerian argument writing process to

determine and refine an appropriate topic argument
brainstorm effective counterarguments and concessions
locate faulty logic and explore workable solutions

Additionally, you will develop critical evaluation skills to avoid the possible pitfalls with using GenAI for argumentation.