AUCC 3B-3D Writing Assessment

Designing and Assessing Meaningful Writing Assignments in the Age of Generative AI

The Foundations Project

Course assignments are a key element of teaching, learning, and outcomes assessment. Well-designed assignments clarify purpose and expectations for performance. Improving transparency and scaffolding of skills needed for course assignments are also key moves towards supporting student learning in the university classroom. The introduction of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT has created perplexing challenges and exciting opportunities for using writing as a tool and process for learning disciplinary content.

This year, we are working on The Foundations Project. This project aims to improve learning through writing in the All-University Core Curriculum (AUCC). We will focus on quality writing assignments and consider the best ways to integrate GenAI (or not) into these assignments. We are looking for 20 faculty to collaborate on building assignments and assessment tools that can be shared with others teaching AUCC 3B-3D courses. The Foundations Project is a kind of pilot project where we will build things together!

Participating faculty are:

1. Participating in a 2-hour workshop on assignment design.

2. Creating a new writing assignment or revise an existing one that they will use in an AUCC course.

3. Collaborating with the group to create and test an assessment rubric in spring 2025 (this will require 4-6 meetings).

4. Providing student work samples in spring and participate in a review session at the end of spring 2025.


Goals of this Project

  1. Improve writing assignments in AUCC 3B-D courses to support student achievement of course learning outcomes.
  2. Instructors teaching AUCC 3B-D courses will work in community to consider the potential uses and drawbacks of AI for student learning through writing.
  3. Co-create an assessment rubric to use for student writing across AUCC 3B-3D courses.
  4. Conduct an assessment of student writing performance with sufficient selection of work samples to be able to meaningfully disaggregate the results across demographic groups.

AUCC Student Learning Outcomes and Expectations for Using Writing

Courses approved for AUCC categories 3B, 3C, and 3D are required to address written communication learning outcomes. AUCC guidance requires that “courses in categories 3B, 3C, and 3D must base at least 25% of the final grade on writing, a portion of which must be written outside of class. Writing activities may range from brief in-class reflective writing to multi-draft revised papers” (p. 62, Colorado State University All-University Core Curriculum).

There are no expectations that AUCC instructors will use Generative AI in their classrooms. The choice to integrate AI into instruction and/or writing assignments is for the instructor to make and communicate with students.

Writing to Learn​

Writing to Learn is a teaching method that uses writing as a tool to help students learn and retain information. Disciplinary content courses might use writing as a way to help students think critically about course material, integrate new ideas, and explore connections among ideas. Writing to Learn is also used as a formative assessment to gauge understanding and identify need for further instruction. Writing is infused into AUCC 3B, 3C, and 3D courses to enhance learning in the discipline and help students think deeper about the subject matter.​​​


Purpose and Scope of the Assessment

In spring 2025, The Foundations Project participants will provide randomly selected student work products to support the assessment of student written communication. Assessment of these work products will allow us to begin building a collective understanding of student skill development and performance. This information will help us identify areas of strength and needs for support. It will also help us refine the assessment tools and process to be able to confidently scale up the assessment for the AUCC.

Resources  

Funding from the Provost’s office will be made available to support faculty who participate in the project.

For more information, please contact Stephanie Foster at [email protected]