John Falenschek | jfalensc@uwsuper.edu
Coming this fall to the University of Wisconsin Superior will be the first offering of a class that will deal with Artificial Intelligence in the field of creative writing, it will be called WRIT 411 Writing and Artificial Intelligence.
Offered through the Department of Writing, Language and Literature, the class will be taught by Daniel Lawrence Ph.D. This is an opportunity for students of any discipline to experience the new and changing world of AI in writing. Lawrence feels that the course’s, “most valuable aspect is a more serious introspective on what it means to be a writer.”
This course is the brainchild of Lawrence who conceived of the idea approximately three years ago. He realized AI was here to stay when he saw OpenAI had more than 100 million users a month.
Lawrence feels he has an obligation to prepare his students to have competitive skills in the workplace, and this class is another aspect to help students do that. Writing and Artificial Intelligence has been designed so that a student needs no prior experience with AI. It will deal with prompt engineering, how to use AI in that process, how to analyze results, develop a critical perspective, and enhance creativity.
Amanda Dunlavy is a UWS student who is enrolled for the class next fall semester. Her expectation for WRIT 411 are to get more exposure to and to receive a better understanding of AI. When asked if AI would affect her writing, she did not think so. “It feels like cheating to me,” said Dunlavy. “It would take away personal creativity,” she emphasized as one of her biggest concerns.
The process of getting authorization for the class required a developed syllabus, and numerous meetings with the Writing, Language and Literature department, who were very positive in their review. Lawrence has submitted the syllabus to the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Council. Once the syllabus was approved by the UACC, the relevant information went to the registrar to be included in the fall semester offerings.
The class is currently offered as an online course with two separate class sections both taught by Lawrence.
