Brian Wilson teaches introductory composition and is experimenting with using the paid version of ChatGPT4 as a feedback assistant. His first efforts surprised him.
“In many cases, GPT gave better feedback than I did. I wouldn’t have thought this would be possible a year ago.”
He developed an extensive prompt that makes use of his rubric, then pastes the student work into the chat. ChatGPT works through the student writing using the rubric to guide its analysis. It then prints out its findings along with specific examples from the student’s writing. Wilson then reads the work himself and grades the assignment. He gives feedback to the student using his own assessment notes along with the output from ChatGPT.
“This is not a timesaver. This is about being able to provide your students with more robust feedback than you would normally be able to. It helps give the specificity we as teachers aspire to, but don’t always accomplish because we have 40 or more students,” Wilson said.
Wilson talked to his students about his approach before using it and says it is most helpful with the more prescriptive aspects of writing like grammar, mechanics, and analytic writing. He finds it less useful when it comes to helping students develop voice and interpretation.
To learn more, view Wilson's video presentation on Yuja.
More details at: https://teaching.unl.edu/ai