Write 6×6 and AI
I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since we started the blog challenge at GCC. Shout out to Todd Conaway, formerly of Yavapai College, for getting us started. Boy have things changed in these 10 years too. Lisa’s now in charge, and I love that. She gives us some interesting writing prompts that I usually ignore after I’ve spent a few hours thinking about it. I think this time I’ll write on her prompt: “TRUTH: It’s clear that AI tools are here to stay. What “AI hack” have you discovered that you would recommend to a colleague?”
This one is easy. I’m not going to over think this one. I could share how I taught ChatGPT to write like me, and after about a month, I thought it was the weirdest thing ever and stopped. Ha! That’s some scary shit. No doubt. Then I trained it to rewrite my feedback on assignments and add context and detail. For instance, I would write that a particular paragraph was weak, missing a transition, topic sentence doesn’t work and there are numerous run on sentences. I could just add that to the comments section in Canvas for the student to read, but it’s very vague. ChatGPT would take my comments, and knowing what the assignment asked for and the rubric for grading, and it would turn my 3-4 shorthand comments into a wealth of information for students; a full paragraph explaining the importance of using transition, strong topic sentences, and providing examples of run-on sentences. He (he’s a he to me) didn’t even read the student’s work, but was able to provide all that information just from my brief short hand. It was amazing, but that got old quick too. Sad to say I went back to my short hand and rubrics temporarily.
Create Course Content in NotebookLM
All that was dandy, but the AI discovery I want to share with you all today is something I shared with my department during week of accountability. The video below provides an overview of how to enhance online courses using Notebook LM, a tool that allows educators to compile and present course materials in an engaging way, including the creation of multimedia content like video overviews and quizzes for students.
Embracing AI in Writing Instruction: A Look at Packback’s Writing Lab
Time is wearing me down. Yep. We, as community college educators, are facing an evolving challenge: how do we equip students with the skills to thrive in a world that increasingly blends traditional methods with cutting-edge technologies? I’ve written about Packback before with its innovative way of engaging students in asynchronous discussion boards. Today, I want to talk about Packback’s new Writing Lab. They boast they are here to bridge that gap, offering a solution that doesn’t just use AI for convenience but actively teaches students how to write more effectively, with and without AI assistance. Seems ideal, doesn’t it?
So what is Writing Lab? Writing Lab is a “direct-to-student AI-powered platform” designed to help students refine their writing skills independently. Unlike traditional AI tools that “write for you,” Writing Lab focuses on pedagogy and mastery-based learning. It provides real-time feedback on grammar, structure, readability, and logic, making it a supportive writing companion for students working on essays, research papers, or even creative pieces. I could never provide real-time feedback to my students like that. But here’s where it gets interesting. Writing Lab is available to students at GCC who are in Packback-integrated classrooms. So if you adopt Packback (it’s free – district pays), you can just set up your class to let students access Writing Lab independently. It’s like sending them to the Writing Center.
Let’s face it. AI tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, and the 10+ other bots out there have thrown a curveball at academic writing. Some of us are grappling with questions about how to maintain high standards and integrity in the writing process while embracing these new technologies. If Writing Lab can help students build AI literacy while fostering foundational writing skills, it’s a “best of both worlds” approach that recognizes AI as a partner, not a crutch. I’ve got my rose-colored glasses on here and fingers crossed.
I like the idea that Writing Lab flags issues like logical fallacies or unsupported claims, offering explanations rather than just corrections. This encourages critical thinking and helps students understand why revisions are necessary. It also claims to help students with source credibility and citation support. Students receive feedback on the reliability of their sources and can generate citations in APA, MLA, or Chicago styles. It even assigns “Credibility Scores” to sources, helping students discern quality research. The more I read about Packback’s Writing Lab, the more I see my retirement future. I can’t wait to try this out this spring. Another feature I like is it’s plagiarism prevention. Instead of punishing plagiarism, Writing Lab proactively alerts students to potentially uncredited text and prompts them to cite appropriately. It even guides them on citing AI-generated suggestions transparently, a skill becoming increasingly relevant in academic and professional writing. Pretty cool, no?
Okay, I’m starting to sound like an ad for Packback. Truth is, I’m torn between wanting to prepare students not just for their current courses but for the realities of the professional world. AI is not going away, and I’m already seeing more and more student use, and that’s not permitted use. We’ve got to find a balance for ethical use of AI, where tools like Writing Lab can hopefully serve as an extension of our classroom and not a means to cheat. Students using it could gain confidence and competence, reducing the time I spend grading and marking basic errors and allowing me to focus on higher-level feedback. Ah, that would be really nice. I can’t wait to try it. For more information, send me an email, and I’ll forward it to our Packback Curriculum Consultant, Naomi Campbell (not the British fashion model, I’m sure), who is standing in for our regular support person, Katie Horan.
Additional Information
Video Discussions are a Superior Option for Asynchronous Online Learning
In online education, asynchronous discussions are a key component of engaging students and encouraging participation in a flexible learning environment. Traditionally, these discussions have been text-based, with students posting written responses to prompts and replying to their peers. However, the rise of video platforms and tools like Canvas Studio, the late Flip (rest in peace), Kaltura, Screencast-O-Matic, Padlet, and others has opened the door to a more dynamic and interactive approach: video discussions. Integrating video discussions into online courses offers several key advantages, enhancing both the educational experience and community-building efforts.
The biggest reason I made the switch to video discussion is because of AI. As AI tools become more accessible, some students often turn to AI to generate text responses for asynchronous discussions. While this can save time, it undermines the authenticity and value of the learning process. AI-generated responses can come across as disingenuous, lacking the personal touch and deeper understanding that real human input provides. The result is a discussion that feels robotic and unengaging. This can make the overall conversation dull and uninspiring, as students simply churn out polished but formulaic responses without truly engaging with the material or their peers. Video discussions, on the other hand, make it much harder for students to rely on AI tools, ensuring that the content is genuinely their own and that they are actively participating in the learning process.
One of the main criticisms of online learning is the lack of personal connection compared to face-to-face classes. Video discussions bridge this gap by allowing students to see and hear each other, creating a more humanized and engaging interaction. Facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language add layers of communication that are absent in text discussions, fostering deeper connections between students and instructors. Video discussions enable learners to feel like they’re part of a real community, rather than just a series of names on a screen. This can be especially important for students who may feel isolated in an online environment. Seeing their classmates speak directly to the camera creates a sense of immediacy and involvement, helping to build camaraderie and rapport in the virtual classroom.
This semester I made the switch from Flip to Padlet for my video discussions in my journalism courses. After 3 weeks I can see a real connection between the students in the class. I can see the authenticity of their videos and feel it encourages students to speak more naturally and conversationally compared to the often formal, stilted language used in written posts. This leads to more dynamic exchanges and often deeper, more thoughtful reflections. Video discussions also tend to capture attention more effectively. Students are likely to watch a brief video response from a peer rather than reading through lengthy text posts, thus encouraging more active participation in ongoing discussions. I know that I’ve moved from spot-reading posts to watching all of their videos. I wish I could show you some of the cool interactions that have already transpired so far in these video discussions. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
Editing YouTube Captions for Readability in Canvas Studio Using AI
This post is a follow up post to my last post: Canvas Studio’s Auto-Captioning Feature Does Not Work for Videos Added by a YouTube Link. This might make a bit more sense if you read and watch that video first. As I was saying in the previous video, many faculty use videos from YouTube in Canvas Studio, which doesn’t bring over the captions for those videos. And if you manage to get those captions into Studio, YouTube doesn’t always do a great job of presenting those captions. Just click CC on my YouTube video below to see how bad they are. It’s basically just words on the screen with no punctuation or formatting, which is really not acceptable.
This video demonstrates how to add accurate captions to videos using YouTube’s auto-generated captions and a chatbot to insert punctuation and improve readability in Canvas Studio videos.
Using AI to Support Teaching & Learning: Captioning and Quiz Question Generation
AI is all the rage these days, specifically generative AI. It seems as if everywhere I turn there are articles about new tools and new debates about their usefulness. Although that might be because Google’s algorithms know I’m interested, so they keep feeding me stuff. The next person may see nothing about generative AI. Oh, well. I’m obsessed. I just started a module with my ENG101 students on rhetorical analysis, and we’ve been exploring how to use generative AI tools to help with that process. I made sure to find database sources for them to use, which makes it more challenging to have the chatbots do all the work for them. And then we’re using website articles to practice with. It seems to be working well. I have a sense that students are quicker to understand analysis by doing it this way.
But I’m also looking for a way to get the chatbots to help me with streamlining my processes. I’m pretty solid with my content knowledge at this point after 30+ years of teaching, but I could use some time-saving hacks. One such hack is writing quiz questions and captions for YouTube videos. I’m a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel, so if I find a good video that already shares the essential points of a lesson, I’m using it. The problem is, if I put that video in Canvas Studio and create a quiz, it takes a long time to caption the video and write the quiz questions.
I discovered recently that YouTube videos added to Canvas Studio don’t have the captions attached. I can go over to YouTube and copy/paste the transcript for the video, but I would still need to match up the words with the video which can be time-consuming. It’s actually faster just to transcribe it in the captioning editor. But who has time for that? At that point, it would be easier to just create my own video, which Studio will auto-caption for me. But I found a solution online using a website https://downsub.com/ that will take a URL from a YouTube video and provide an SRT file with the subtitles that you can then just upload to the video in Studio. The website is super sketchy, so be careful if you use it. I’ll show you how in the video below.
Once I have the captions in place, now I need to create a quiz and add my questions. Super easy to do in Studio, but it’s tedious and time-consuming. For this, I found a Chrome extension, NoteGPT: YouTube Summary with ChatGPT & Notes. Make sure you’re using the Chrome browser. The original script for the extension was to summarize YouTube videos for you, but I was able to edit the script to make it write quiz questions. That makes me sound like I’m really smart, but don’t worry, it wasn’t that complicated. The following video will show you the whole process in case you want to replicate it yourself.
Video Link: https://app.screencast.com/3Anjh9XC7a5W1
