Mind Meets Machine: Teaching Critical AI Literacy through a Grammarly-Integrated Writing Course

Sarah Felber, Portfolio Director, Writing Across the Curriculum, University of Maryland Global Campus

​

MDLA Fall Event, October 10, 2025

The Challenge

How do we prepare writing students to think about generative AI tools ethically and effectively when they're already using them?

Revised Course: Foundations of Writing & Communication

• Identify key ideas in written, spoken, and visual texts using active reading, listening, and observation strategies. 
• Compose multimodal texts through a process that includes planning, drafting, and revising for clarity and audience engagement. 
• Integrate ideas from multiple sources using appropriate attribution and ethical citation practices. 
• Use digital tools, including AI, to support the writing process ethically and effectively. 
• Demonstrate purposeful rhetorical choices in content, organization, style, and tone to communicate with a specific audience. 

​

Our 2-Step Approach to Introducing GenAI

Step 1: Introducing a Familiar Tool

What Do You Say?

In order for a student to succeed and be effective in their writing tasks, they must possess the ability to properly and accurately articulate their thoughts in a way that is clear and understandable to the intended audience. It is an important thing for them to do. The results of the research that was done indicated the fact that effective communication is a key component

What Does the AI Say?​

What Does the AI Say?​

Building a Foundation of Reflection

• What did Grammarly help you notice about your writing?
• Were there patterns in the types of errors or suggestions you received?
• Did you discover anything surprising about your writing style or habits?
• Were any of the suggestions surprising or confusing?
• Did you encounter suggestions you disagreed with? Why?
• Were there recommendations that seemed particularly helpful?
• How do you see yourself using this tool in this course or beyond?
• Which specific features do you think will be most valuable to you?
• How might Grammarly support your writing process for the multimodal composition project?
• What questions do you have about using the tool?
• Are there aspects of Grammarly that seem unclear or that you would like to learn more about?
• Are there limitations you have already identified?

Step 2: Getting Deeper

into GenAI Tools

Navigating the AI Landscape

Evaluating AI for a Specific Purpose

Explore generative AI tools to refine your topic.

Select at least three different AI chat tools (ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, etc.). If you are not familiar with available options, Futurepedia.io provides a good starting point.�

For each tool:�

• Create a prompt that includes your topic question, target audience, and purpose.�
• Record the name of the tool and your complete prompt.�
• Ask the tool to help you refine your topic to make it more specific and to fit the scope of the multimodal composition project.�
• Copy the AI's response into your document.�
• Write a brief analysis (2-3 sentences) of how helpful the tool was in refining your topic.

​

Evaluating AI for a Specific Purpose

Learn more about your topic.

​

• Access the UMGC Library's Research Assistant through the library website�
• Enter your refined topic question and request the top 5 sources.�
• Use the copy button in the lower right corner of the Overview of Sources section.�
• Paste these results into your document.�
• Write a brief comparison (3-4 sentences) between the Research Assistant's results and those from the other AI tools.

​

Early Anecdotal Results

Key Takeaways

Questions

Thank you!