Do you assign your students to read digitally available texts for one or more of your course projects?
To help your students engage with their readings more actively and critically–a practice current research tells us is waning–try using PowerNotes’s basic and AI features in your course.
Read the details below and express your interest in joining the Pilot using this form (respond as soon as possible): tiny.utk.edu/PN-AI-Pilot-FA24
There is a $200 stipend for up to 20 participating instructors. Be sure to read the “Specific Details – Participation” section for a few activities to complete before classes start.
PowerNotes is a web browser extension and Canvas app that allows students to highlight and annotate digital source materials as they read–and then organize, synthesize, and integrate their notes and ideas into their composing process for any writing project. Students may share their notes and work-in-progress with instructors and peers for feedback. The PowerNotes interface is user-friendly, making it especially appropriate for undergraduates.
Support for greater engagement with reading also includes the option to use integrated AI tools, “Brainstorm” and “Discovery,” which allow students to query ChatGPT-4o while reading–for example, to fill in gaps in background/historical context, better understand concepts and terminology, and gain a clearer sense of a reading’s complex organization.
In addition, the “Insight” feature allows instructors to observe/monitor students’ AI use. For instructors who are concerned about the potential learning losses that could result if students merely “press a button” to produce machine-generated textual output rather than make their own choices as thinkers and writers in response to their assignments, one approach is to explore the possibilities for using generative AI in ways that assist rather than replace reading, research, and writing processes and that ensure accountability for and transparency of use. Using PowerNotes’s basic and AI features provides an opportunity for such exploration.
The Pilot’s overall goal is to explore whether use of the PowerNotes platform can (1) support increased critical engagement with essential course reading and (2) provide a protected environment for using AI tools in a transparent manner that assists students’ reading, research, and writing processes rather than replaces them. Specifically, the Pilot aims to:
- help develop students’ critical reading skills;
- build student and instructor awareness of the benefits and risks of using LLMs and generative AI in reading and writing assignments;
- describe how students make use of generative AI tools while engaged in the process of completing reading, research, and/or writing activities; and
- assess the effectiveness of the PowerNotes platform for courses that assign reading and writing.
General Details – Participation & Stipend
Who may participate?
Professorial, lecturer, and/or graduate teaching associate* faculty members who teach an in-person** course that requires students to read digitally-available texts, are willing to allow students to use AI for at least one reading or writing assignment, and who have 4 hours to commit to the Pilot are invited to participate.
We aim to enroll up to 20 instructors*** from as many colleges as possible in an effort to gain a broad understanding of the usefulness of this platform to a variety of disciplines.
*Our current information is that international students with a 25% teaching appointment may participate and receive the stipend; those with a 50% percent appointment are not eligible for additional pay. This information may be subject to change.
**Based on our experience, the Pilot is better suited to in-class rather than online courses.
***If we need to limit participants, priority will be given to instructors who are currently teaching one or more Vol Core Written Communication (“WC”) course(s) and/or who have made prior use of PowerNotes.
What is the stipend for participants?
Participating instructors will receive a stipend of $200 for 4 hours of expected work ($50/hour), which will be paid at the end of the semester. Funded Graduate Teaching Associates must obtain approval from the Graduate School using this form. International students on a 25% appointment require additional signatures.
What does the Pilot cost, and how is it funded?
There is no cost to students or instructors who participate in the Pilot.
- The basic features of PowerNotes are available at no cost to UTK students and faculty through our existing contract, which is supported by the UT Libraries.
- PowerNotes’s AI features are available to UT through support from the Judith Anderson Herbert Excellence in Writing Endowment, the English Department First-Year Composition Program’s Writing Fund, and the College of Arts and Science’s AI Educational Campaign.
- The $200 stipend to support up to 20 instructors (who will spend an estimated at 4 hours of preparation and post-pilot assessment) is provided by the College of Arts and Science’s AI Educational Campaign.
Be sure to look at the next section, “Specific Details – Participation,” for more information.
Specific Details – Participation
Specific tasks for instructor participants
Before classes start, include the following in your course design/syllabus:
- State your AI use policy on your syllabus. The Provost’s Office “Suggested Course Syllabus Statements” are here.
- Add information on your syllabus about the use of PowerNotes in your course, including the requirement for students to use PowerNotes:
- “This class is participating in a Pilot project to explore use of AI tools in assignments that require reading and writing; we are using a platform called PowerNotes. We will spend some class time and homework learning about PowerNotes, and at least one of the course assignments will include use of PowerNotes’s AI features.”
- Set aside 1 hour of your in-class time (before students engage in essential course reading; preferably in early September) for students to view and discuss short demos and information about PowerNotes’s basic features (video; reading) and a short guide for how to use the basic features; the AI features, Brainstorm and Discovery, and to discuss basic AI literacy.
- In your course requirements and grading system, build in 3 short assignments related to PowerNotes and decide what credit to give. (The Canvas assignments listed below will be provided for you to import into your course.)
- Introduction to PowerNotes assignment (~45 minutes; could be done for homework or in class; coordinate with the class time listed in item 3 above.)
- Beginning of the semester survey about AI literacy and writing (~10 minutes; could be done in class or for homework)
- End-of-semester survey about AI literacy and writing (~10 minutes; could be done in class or for homework)
- Design and assign one assignment that includes use of PowerNotes and its AI features. We recommend using it for a reading assignment. You will receive direct, one-to-one support from PowerNotes to design the assignment and integrate it into your Canvas course.
Pilot preparation: Learn about PowerNotes’s basic and AI features (~ 4 hours)
- To get started learning about PowerNotes, view this recording of an introductory session with Wilson Tsu, PowerNotes founder, “PowerNotes and AI Basics,” from Thursday, August 15, 2-3 pm
- Attend a meeting (to be arranged) that includes a live demo about PowerNotes’s basic and AI features and how to set up PowerNotes in your Canvas course. (2 hours; may be scheduled at two different times to accommodate schedules)
- Integrate selected PowerNotes AI features into at least one reading or writing assignment for your course.
- Meet with a PowerNotes staff member, who will help you build the assignment that integrates use of AI in your course (30 minutes)
- Participate in the Pilot assessment. (Note: any assessment and/or course information later shared in a report on the Pilot will only refer to department affiliations, not course, instructor, or student names.)
- Complete a beginning- and end-of-semester survey about attitudes toward AI and writing. (~30 minutes)
- Take part in an end-of-semester assessment that includes gathering course materials related to your AI assignment and participating in a focus group about whether you feel the PowerNotes platform allowed for effective and responsible use of AI-enabled tools that support writing and learning. (~1 hour)
What your students will do
Students in classes participating in the Pilot will use PowerNotes and its AI tools according to your guidelines. Ask them to do the following:
- Read your policies/guidelines about AI use and follow them carefully.
- Complete one online beginning-of-semester survey about AI literacy and writing (~10 minutes; will be provided to you.)
- Complete one “Introduction to PowerNotes Assignment” in Canvas to learn about basic features of PowerNotes and its “Brainstorm” and “Discovery” AI-enabled tools (~45 minutes). (Accessed via “Assignments” in Canvas.)
- This assignment includes signing up for a free PowerNotes account.
- Use PowerNotes for at least one additional course assignment selected by you, the instructor. (Time will vary, depending on instructor.)
- At the end of the semester, complete one online survey about AI literacy, writing, and their experience with PowerNotes (~10 minutes; will be provided to you.)
If you allow it, students may choose whether to use PowerNotes’s AI features while working on additional course assignments.
Instructor support
A PowerNotes staff member will provide instructors with resources and consultation to help them during all parts of the Pilot project.
- Contact Catrina at PowerNotes, catrina@powernotes.com. Identify yourself as an instructor participating in UTK’s PowerNotes and AI Writing Pilot.
The Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center PowerNotes and AI Pilot team will provide instructors with resources and consultation to help them during all parts of the pilot project.
- Contact Kirsten Benson or Matt Bryant Cheney at writingcenter@utk.edu.
How to Express Interest in Joining the PowerNotes and AI Pilot – Complete by August 14
To indicate your interest in joining the PowerNotes and AI Pilot, complete this form as soon as possible: tiny.utk.edu/PN-AI-Pilot-FA24
- We will contact you shortly after you submit the form to confirm your participation.
- It will be very helpful for you to get started by attending a Zoom demo of PowerNotes’s basic features on Thursday, August 15, 2-3 pm – or watch the recording afterwards. The interest form asks a question about whether you can attend or view that session.
- Zoom demo of PowerNotes’s basic features, Thursday, August 15, 2-3 pm: https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/85344683331
- A recording will be posted here after the session.
Contact Dr. Kirsten Benson, writingcenter@utk.edu, with any questions.
Photo credits: Photo by Alessandro Bianchi on Unsplash; Photo by Sharon Pittaway on Unsplash