Congratulations to ELSO Senior Lecturer, Melissa Myers, for her Honorable Mention for the “Creative Responses to Generative AI” Teaching Innovation Award from the Center for Teaching Innovation and the Office of the Vice-Provost for Academic Innovation. Myers submitted work done as part of her instruction in ELSO 6595 Revising and Editing, where she worked together with students to explore different GAI tools (e.g Chat GPT) and their potential uses and limitations for revising and editing academic papers.
In this course, Myers collaborated with students to investigate the ethical implications and the effective use of AI through anonymous surveys, activities testing GAI use, critical class discussions, and presentations. This open space for exploration enabled students to be more confident and informed about if, when, and how to use GAI. One noted that Chat GPT is "best used as a guide, like a human friend that can make mistakes, rather than a foolproof tool.” Course evaluations confirmed students benefitted from this inclusion in course objectives. When asked, "To what extent were the following course elements useful or beneficial?”, student responses scored 4.67/5.0 for "Analyzing Generative AI as a tool to support revising and editing.” Myers noted, "In future courses I plan to ask more specifically in a post-course survey about what students learned, yet even these preliminary explorations of GAI have proven incredibly valuable for both the students and me.”
ELSO Director Michelle Crow commented, "Melissa is such an innovative instructor, who knows how to create safe spaces in her classes for students to explore, take risks, and ask questions. This is particularly important when it comes to GAI, as students can be fearful of even trying the tool, never mind discussing it openly. We are so glad that Melissa is doing this valuable work in her courses, and so glad that her work is being recognized by Cornell.”
