Plagiarism and Accessibility

For years, the Writing-Across-the-Curriculum (WAC) movement encouraged departments from Physics to Physical Education to make long-form writing central to instruction. The explosion of generative AI has seemed to pose an existential threat to this initiative: how can we assign writing without constantly having to police its authenticity? Is there a role for machine-generated content in texts in my field? How do I ensure that students are learning if their browser can produce a paper in seconds? Is WAC dead?

This workshop answers with an emphatic “no.” Writing assignments that allow students to develop complex ideas, engage in meaningful research, and demonstrate increasing proficiency in subject-area knowledge are still valuable. And while increasingly sophisticated technologies may present students with seemingly insurmountable temptations, the principles of Universal Design offer a rubric for designing paper assignments that drive deep learning despite these challenges. Radically open assignments, layered submissions, multiple rounds of feedback: these are strategies that not only make space for all students to engage, but also to develop critical thinking skills that cannot be subverted by even the most sophisticated text-generating software.

• Matthew Lavery, Director of the Center for Academic Support and Enrichment (CASE)

This event is for Adelphi University faculty.