Jacob Rice

Catt Hall, a collective for liberal art services on central campus was built in 1883. The building was renovated in 1995 after being placed under the National Register of Historic Places. 2224 Osborn Dr, Ames, Iowa, Aug. 31, 2023.

Thirty-one students from different backgrounds, majors are the first to learn about generative Artificial Intelligence tools and techniques in ENGL 222X.

The new course, ENGL 222x: Artificial Intelligence and Writing, made its debut this semester. According to Iowa State’s department of English, this course will transform students’ thoughts on writing, thinking and content creation. The course will allow students to discover the power of generative AI in shaping the future of writing.

The course highlights: 

• How to find and use AI technologies such as ChatGPT for various writing purposes
• AI and writing technologies and explore ethical challenges
• How to develop effective AI prompts and search for accurate information
• How to compose texts that seamlessly integrate AI-generated and processed content

“ENGL 222x is an experimental Artificial Intelligence course in which students explore applications of generative AI for writing and communication,” ENGL 222x professor Abram Anders said. “The course is meant to help students develop foundational AI literacies such as learning prompting techniques and understanding ethical principles of using these tools to author multimodal texts.”

In ENGL 222x, students are guided by Anders and supported by an instructional team that helps them succeed in this course. No programming or computer science background is required to register for this course, and all necessary resources are provided for students. 

“Any student can benefit from taking this course in several ways, both in terms of skill development and broadening perspectives,” Emily Dux Speltz, who helped develop the curriculum for the ENGL 222x course, said. “First, our students are learning how to become intelligent and ethical users of AI tools. We’re teaching our students about advanced prompting techniques, which I believe to be an incredibly valuable skill that sets them apart as experienced and knowledgeable users of AI.”

Dux Speltz said many educators and students share their concerns with the new AI technology. To alleviate the growing uneasiness, Speltz Dux and Anders created an AI ethics student guide that explains how they developed an ethical approach to using AI in the academic setting. 

“Our course has been a great opportunity to alleviate some students’ concerns about AI,” Dux Speltz said. “Some students signed up for the course because they had reservations about AI and wanted to learn more about it, so this course has offered them a chance to understand its capabilities and limitations. This way, they can learn how to safely and effectively harness its power rather than hide from it.”

According to Anders, students in ENGL 222x this fall semester are working on various creative projects. Students are exploring storytelling, content creation, developing digital tools and venturing into video game design. Specific examples of student projects this semester include: 

• Multimedia Mystery Story: Crafting a mystery fiction with integrated visual/audio elements.
• Smart Calendar Reminder: An app or prompt system to manage and remind of calendar events.
• Interactive Story Game: Web-based game that generates stories based on user input.
• Modular E-vehicle Concept: Designing a user interface and workflow for modular e-bike/car systems.
• AI-Assisted Farming App: Prototype application aiding farmers in sustainable cropping decisions.

The course is structured so students will participate in a creative challenge each week that lets them experiment with various AI tools and techniques. Toward the end of the course, students will then complete a creative project that may be a multimodal story, video, essay or AI-based innovation. 

“They’re [the students of ENGL 222x] also learning about the wide variety of AI tools that are available to them so that they can find the most effective tool for a particular task,” Speltz Dux said. “I’m really excited to see how our students will apply these skills and their knowledge of specialized AI tools to their final projects for the course.”

According to Time Magazine, a study released this year found 80% of the U.S. workforce will have at least 10% of their work affected by GPTs, with about one in five seeing at least half of their tasks impacted.

“I want students to explore the possibilities of using generative AI to support writing and learning tasks,” Anders said. “I hope that these experiences will help them be more successful as students and prepare them for a professional career in which generative AI tools are likely to become an integral part of how work gets done.”