Emerging Discussions

All these new strands will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

AI/ChatGPT and WPA Work: Deny It? Ban It? Embrace It? Or something else?

 

The recent discussions in and out of Writing Studies and WPA circles have been loaded with mixed feelings: apprehension, fear, worries, excitement, hope, helplessness, to name a few. As WPAs, we have a lot of questions to ask and answer and a lot to contribute to the conversation in ways that benefit our programs: students, instructors, courses.

Let’s get together at CWPA this summer to discuss some of these topics and help each other forge a way forward:

  • Conversations to have with all stakeholders: instructors, students, department chairs, centers for teaching and learning, eLearning units, assessment specialists
  • Pedagogical practices that may open productive and critical conversations about AI-generated texts with students away from the ban-embrace dichotomy
  • Assignment and activity ideas that help both instructors and students unpack that new technology and its affordances for writing
  • Workshops for writing instructors on how to best deal with ChatGPT
  • Creating syllabus statements about ChatGPT

The plan is to have several discussion groups on these topics and to develop a white paper on AI/ChatGPT for WPAs as the outcome of these discussions. Our goal is to have more informed and balanced discussions that are grounded in what we know about writing pedagogy, using technology in teaching writing, our developing knowledge of and experience with AI-generated texts, and our knowledge of our institutional contexts.

If interested in being part of this developing discussion, send us a 250-word proposal in which you list your topic(s) of interest and what you hope to get out of that conversation. It would be useful to have a brief note about your current level of knowledge of and experience with AI-generated texts to help us group panelists better.

WPA Sounding Board (Let’s Figure It Out Together)

  • Are you working on a curriculum revision and don’t know where to start or how to propose it?
  • Does your institution have new policies that impact your program and you’re not sure how to respond to them?
  • Are you preparing your Promotion and/or Tenure packet and not sure how to present your WPA work in your dossier?
  • Are you interested in incorporating multimodal pedagogy, linguistic diversity, social justice, e-portfolio assessment in your program but need some guidance and direction?

Come to CWPA and Let’s Figure It Out Together.

In this new feature of CWPA conference, WPAs dealing with these or other issues at their programs, departments, or institutions are invited send a 250-word description of their situation and a brief note about their institutional context. We will group WPAs dealing with similar issues together to have a discussion among themselves and with other WPAs who may have dealt with such topics in the past and can share plans, suggestions, or documents.

CWPA Bragging Hall

Who doesn’t like to brag about a recent project or initiative that you helped spearhead and implement at your institution? Or perhaps it’s a new research project that you just completed? Whom are we kidding; we all love to brag and we haven’t had a chance to do that for … a while.

Let’s celebrate your recent accomplishments in CWPA Bragging Hall. Bragging topics include, but certainly aren’t limited to:

  • Curriculum revision/changes
  • Professional development ideas and success stories
  • Collaboration with other campus units
  • Grants to support your work
  • A WPA research project
  • Changes in TA training and professionalization
  • Changes in assessment practices at the course or program level

Each presenter will have 25 minutes (15 minutes for presenting + 10 minutes for interacting with audience) in which they will present their recent accomplishment, the planning process, its impact or how it was received, and lessons learned from that experience. Remember these are quick-paced individual presentations (two presenters maximum) to allow for interaction with your audience.

If you want us to celebrate your successes with you, send us a 200-word description of your accomplishment highlighting its importance and impact.

Come brag about your success, get inspired by other WPAs’ accomplishments and take back a few ideas to help you plan the next steps of your WPA work.