Appreciation goes to the sixty-seven of you who have taken the confidential survey on how much you allow your students to use artificial intelligence (AI) in your technical writing courses. If you have not yet done so, please consider participating by the survey’s close: the end of next Monday (March 9). If you participate, you will receive a summary of results for the short-answer questions before the "Ides" of the month.
The results should be interesting, especially for those of you who teach on "islands" (for example, a sole writing instructor in an engineering or science department). In the survey, the 18 short answer questions should take you no more than 15 minutes to complete. To answer the five open-ended questions, which are optional, I encourage you to have your syllabus open so that you can cut and paste portions, such as specific policies.
Sponsored by the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education at Penn State, this survey has been approved as IRB Study 28588. As part of this IRB, your participation will remain confidential. Should you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to write me.
Sincerely,
Michael Alley
P.S. No matter what your position is on allowing AI in your technical writing courses, I hope that you will participate. One goal of this survey is to provide a snapshot of where we as an "archipelago" of technical writing teachers stand on this AI issue. If you participate, you will have this snapshot within two weeks.
Michael Alley
Teaching Professor, Engineering Communication
Pennsylvania State University
201 Hammond Bldg
University Park, PA 16802
https://www.assertion-evidence.org
https://www.craftofscientificwriting.org