Communication students compare their papers to work by AI 

What prompted your use of AI for this class project?

If students are going to use the tool, then they need to be aware of it and all its issues – good and not so good, so they can make informed decisions about how and when they use AI for their academic, personal, and professional work.

Describe the work you are doing with AI related to your class, including the tools you use.

For the midterm paper, students choose to write about a core concept from the class. One part of the assignment asks students to write a paper on their own and then write one using AI on the same topic. They then compare the two papers.

Although most students chose to use AI, they could opt out and research and write about it instead. This was the prompt:

“Please research an academic article from University Libraries within the last five years as it relates to AI and the workforce, communication, education or topic area of your choice.

• What was the focus of the research study or article, and what methods were used?
• What does it say about the use of AI and its impact on the workforce, communication, education or topic area of your choice?”

Students in the class also must complete the University Libraries Generative AI Tutorial and submit their certificate of completion for points.

I conducted a survey on their experience with the Generative AI Tutorial, which outlines possible concerns students might have about AI, including “ethical concerns, intellectual property, ecological, privacy, or trust erosion”.

Many were concerned about the environmental impacts in terms of the water and land use, the privacy and ethical impact of your information and data being stored, and that AI is not 100 percent accurate and must be fact checked in terms of the credibility of the information.

How did the use of AI impact the outcome?

Those who chose to use AI to compare their paper know that AI is a tool that can be used to summarize articles. While it wrote in a more technical language style, that did not mean that the AI generated papers were better.

The students noted that the AI versions did not use direct quotes and did not follow the assignment criteria. In one case, the AI paper kept repeating text that did not have anything to do with the assignment. The students added that their own papers were much stronger as they included direct quotes, and personal examples that correlated with the studies to further strengthen their paper and writing style in their own voice.

How did students react to the use of AI?

As far as usage, most of the CJ 340 class has used various AI apps/platforms already and their self-evaluated skill level varied from beginner to experienced. The students realized before taking the survey and performing the AI comparison that AI as a tool can be useful but that they must check the AI version for credibility, authenticity, formatting, and grammar/writing style.

What role (if any) do your own concerns about the consequences of AI (environmental, social, academic, others) play in your work with AI for this class?

In my MS program at the ATLAS Institute at CU Boulder, we focused on technology and social change. That plus seeing the news media transition from paper to digital, and social media explode … are always in the back of my mind.

Now with AI, which has been on the horizon for some time and has ramped up in the last few years … my approach is to remember that it is a tool, and that when tools are being created and implemented in real time, sometimes they run into snags, or sometimes they blow up in the lab … So, being aware of how a tool is created, implemented and how it impacts those who use it or don’t use it are on my mind too. I do my best to keep aware and informed on the issues and the technology (including) … its implications in terms of use and the unintended consequences.

What surprised you about your work to integrate more AI in this course?

I appreciated professors Tamar Ginossar and Cleophas Muneri who developed and taught previous versions of the class for having the AI comparison already added to the midterm paper requirement.

Also, the guidance from UNM on the use of AI in the classroom and the syllabus language for fall 2026 all supported me to contribute and elaborate on the use of AI in the midterm paper assignment and in the course. It was good to engage with the students on how and where they are using AI technology and their thoughts on it. I really appreciated the Generative AI as Information System tutorial that University Libraries put together as this launched the dialog on the issues with the students.

Also, the ASU Graduate certificate on AI in higher ed provided guidance on how to assess information generated by AI. I include the following statement in my syllabus:

“Each AI sourced piece of information must be evaluated on the following criteria: “Relevance, Accuracy, Completeness, Clarity, Coherence, and Appropriateness (RACCA)”. The acronym is a method to assess AI outputs, and it is credited to Dr. Andrew Maynard, Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University.”

It took all these voices and their input to make the assignment meaningful and work for the students.

Do you have advice for other faculty trying AI?

My suggestion is the same as I give the students, try it, see what it does, and if you’re already using it, then you can further critique its strengths and weaknesses. If you do not want to use it, then try an alternative of researching the implications of AI in the classroom, in the workplace, etc … But also, be aware that AI is lurking in the background, be aware of it and how to engage or not engage with it, know your laptop, cell phone and internet settings on the backend.

Would you like to share an AI resource or information you have found especially useful for academics?

The University Libraries Research Guides on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education, and CJ301: Communication Research Methods, and have been also made available to the students for reference, along with the UNM AI page. I appreciated the What Instructors Need to Know – Guidance on AI in the classroom text for the syllabus for fall 2026, it was very useful.

The CTL and NM Online Teaching Hub offered a great course. The presenter, Ashley Evans, is an educator, and she gave great tips and examples on how to pivot assignments in the workshop “Grade the Human, not the Homework.” Basically, she went over assessing students on the “how” and “why” they are using AI and have them defend their critical thinking and reasoning for using AI through various approaches.

Links provided by Ashley Evans:

• General Website: teachaiready.com
• Grade The Human Framework: teachaiready.com/grade-the-human
• More Teaching Strategies: teachaiready.com/strategies

Note: some of the earliest integration of AI into this course was started by Tamar Ginossar, a professor of communication. Ginossar added the course, which was developed by Cleophas Muneri, an assistant professor of communication.

Mary K. Bowannie, (Zuni/Cochiti Pueblos), is a term teaching faculty member in the Department of Communication and Journalism. She holds two graduate degrees in Journalism, and in Information and Communication Technology for Development, both from the University of Colorado Boulder. She has a graduate certificate in AI for Teaching and Learning: Higher Education from Arizona State University and has completed the Charting a Path to Accessible Digital Content course offered by the UNM Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL).