Creating an Essay Outline with a Chatbot

In this assignment, students developed an outline for their final essay by defining a research question, drafting a thesis, identifying supporting evidence and sources, and using an instructor-designed chatbot to scaffold their brainstorming and outline development.

Author: Srijani Ghosh, Lecturer in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

Course Number & Title: Theater R1B, Female Playwrights

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Details
Assignment Title	Creating an Essay Outline with a Chatbot
Delivery Format	In-person
Learning Objectives	Identify novel research questions from reading and in-class discussion Develop researchable claims and arguments Integrate outside sources into an argument
Brief Summary of Assignment	The final essay outline asks students to submit the following work to help them scaffold the reading, research, and thinking they will need to complete their final essay assignment. Specifically, students submit their 1) research question, 2) the thesis that provides a tentative answer to the research question, 3) at least four specific points to support the thesis statement 4) specific passages from the required plays that will support those main points, and 5) the links for five articles that are intended use in the essay. Students use an instructor-generated chatbot, developed in Playlab, to prompt them in the development of these five components for the essay outline. The chatbot is designed to prompt students through a series of scaffolded steps that will allow them to brainstorm and output an effective outline that is based on their own thinking about their research question and argument.
Guardrails Shared with Students	Students are informed that the goal of this outline assignment is to ensure that they are well-equipped with the material that they need to write a strong paper. This assignment is framed as scaffolding to help them with their larger writing process. In general, the course AI policy directs students to cite any use of AI (from Grammarly to usage of a LLM) in their references section. Students also discuss the output of the Playlab chatbot conversation in a one-on-one conference before the final essay outline itself is due.

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