After 33 years of teaching writing, Senior Research Professor Kelly Belanger, M.A., Ph.D., has learned to expect one constant: technology will always be changing the field. In her role as the director of Valparaiso University’s Writing Program, she’s guiding both students and faculty through the latest transformation – the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education and writing professions.
So, is this the biggest shift she’s seen in her career?
“It’s hard to compare it, because my career includes the start of email,” she says with a smile. “I think we can safely say that AI – especially with the advent of large language model generative AI in the last couple years – has been the biggest change, and actually a big paradigm shifter for the teaching of writing.”
As AI is increasingly being used across industries, Professor Belanger and other Valpo English faculty have been leaders in integrating education about AI into student courses and faculty training. This past spring, Professor Belanger partnered with fellow English professors to add AI into Valpo’s Introduction to Business and Professional Writing course.
In the class, students reflected on AI ethics, experimented with generative AI tools in exercises, and interviewed a working professional about their use of AI. Professor of English Carter Hanson, M.A., Ph.D., integrated AI into the interview assignment by having students use it to brainstorm questions and conduct research. They were then instructed to write a profile of their interview subject without the use of AI – aiming to spark their creativity and bring the person to life on the page.
“The intellectual integrity of actually having to write for oneself is absolutely essential,” says Professor Hanson, who also serves as the English department chair. “If we’re going to be using AI in all kinds of workplaces, we still need human beings to do lots of things – and one of those things is being creative. That’s what I was trying to stress to my students: Don’t try to replicate what AI can already do. Produce something that AI wouldn’t produce.”
Another member of the English faculty, Professor Betsy Burow-Flak, Ph.D., hosts “AI Cafés” during the semester with students in her classes. On these days, the class spends time discussing the ethics of different uses of AI, designing prompts for AI tools, and evaluating what the tools generate in response.
“I am fascinated by how advances in technology shape the way that we imagine, communicate, and make sense of our world,” Professor Burow-Flak says.
Beginning this academic year, Professor Burow-Flak is co-leading a team of faculty from across campus with Assistant Provost for Strategic Initiatives Bonnie Dahlke Goebbert, M.Ed., to investigate ways to infuse a critical understanding of AI into Valpo’s general education efforts. The team is participating in a year-long institute with a focus on AI in education, facilitated by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Through the online institute, they’ll gain insights from innovators on AI and teaching to support curriculum planning for the future.
“The widespread availability of generative AI has ushered in a new revolution: one that is already reshaping how we do everything, and that we should neither refuse nor embrace uncritically,” Professor Burow-Flak says. “Emerging technologies inevitably accelerate the pace of change, and we in higher education are called to examine, experiment with, and teach the best uses of artificial intelligence in our fields.”
For all students who take English courses at Valpo – whether as English majors or for general education – the department helps them build foundational skills to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world.
“We’re really trying to integrate experiential and classroom learning in ways that produce students who have a set of tangible critical thinking and writing skills – and combining that with an expansive view of the world that opens up new ways of thinking,” says Professor Hanson.
To learn more about the Valparaiso University English department, visit valpo.edu/english.
