by Dr. Stephanie Thompson and Dr. Robert Musante

This post reflects on the authors’ presentation at the 2026 Purdue University Global General Education Conference, exploring how virtual writing instructors can move beyond “policing” their students’ use of artificial intelligence toward a process-oriented pedagogy that preserves authentic human thought, fosters real-time collaboration, and integrates generative AI tools ethically.

In early 2026, a National Public Radio story profiled Chanea Bond, a high school English teacher in Fort Worth, TX, who made headlines by banning computers altogether and requiring her students to write every assignment by hand to keep artificial intelligence out of her classroom (Gaines, 2026). Her approach is understandable, given challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI), but for people in higher education who teach online, a fully analog class is not an option. We cannot provide physical blue books across screens. Is there a digital equivalent of the handwritten blue book? Further, is chasing an analog substitute the right goal, or should we rethink student authorship? We acknowledge that learning involves responsible effort, so we help students understand careful and caring ways to build writing from one activity to the next.

We enliven learning by teaching students how to advance. When students rely on generative AI as an effortless shortcut, “they risk missing out on the cognitive benefits of writing—clarifying thoughts, discovering insights through the writing process and learning to express complex ideas with precision and nuance” (Warner, 2025, as cited in Mintz, 2025, para. 7). Instead of focusing on catching AI misuse, online faculty can promote a process-oriented pedagogy that lets students show how they crafted essays, from developing a thesis statement to editing the final version.

The Rocky Moment: Reclaiming Steps

Writing is not an instantaneous product; it is a process-oriented journey that requires determination and a willingness to make mistakes. In Purdue Global’s speedy 10-week terms, students need a “Rocky moment”—the understanding that mastery of skills demands rigorous training and repetition. Just as a fighter must train relentlessly before entering the ring, a writer must build skills through brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and revising. Mistakes are not failures; they are opportunities in disguise. In these nuanced moments when acts of discovery naturally–even painfully–occur, students forge creations–they perceive ideas that arise from one activity to the next. According to Loya (2022), instructors should push students to know creative capacities: “By granting epistemic credibility to their students, instructors encourage them to contribute to knowledge creation” (p. 251). The laborious acts of writing become integral to student-writers, and the writing shines with originality, purpose, and scintillating meaning. In a distinct, assertive manner, more powerful writing emerges.

Bond’s decision to banish AI and go the analog route may not be feasible for online classes, but her focus on process points to another possibility. To promote online writing processes, we must grade the entire journey, not just the final deliverable (Gaines, 2026). When we assess milestones such as theses, outlines, annotated bibliographies, and drafts, we help students understand that better learning happens. Grading each milestone makes it less likely that a student will paste a prompt into a chatbot and call its response a finished product.

Making Process Visible in Virtual Spaces

How do we implement this process-oriented approach in virtual environments? Fortunately, digital tools afford opportunities to make the writing process transparent:

• Real-Time Collaboration via Padlet. Rather than assigning isolated writing tasks, instructors use collaborative platforms such as Padlet during synchronous seminars. Interactive, low-stakes brainstorming sessions allow students to share ideas, experiment with voice, and build confidence before tackling higher-stakes written assignments (Gaines, 2026).
• Google Doc Version History. Requiring students to write in cloud-based documents allows instructors to review revision histories and timestamp logs. Seeing an essay evolve through drafting sessions provides verifiable evidence of human revision, whereas a document that appears formed in a single paste reveals an absence of process. However, this method is not foolproof; the use of auto-typers, humanizers, and other tools makes this authorship verification less reliable.
• Documented Research Trails. Asking students to submit search histories or prompts from AI-powered research tools like Perplexity creates audit trails of their intellectual curiosity, showing how they found sources.

Stress-Testing Assignments for AI Resilience

Changing the way that we assess students’ writing is step one. Our assignment prompts must evolve to discourage unethical AI use. If a student copies and pastes a prompt and grading rubric into a generative AI tool and receives a passing response in under ten seconds, what does that say about assignment design? To create AI-resilient assignments, instructors should evaluate prompts by running them through generative tools, such as Gemini and ChatGPT. Prompts that ask students to summarize or describe textbook information lead in turn to generic AI output. However, AI struggles to replicate situated knowledge and authentic insights. Assignments and discussion boards must inspire critical thinking and encourage genuine reflection rather than regurgitated information. Shifting from traditional essays towards genres that require authentic voice, personal reflection, and contextual judgment—such as speeches, op-eds, policy briefs, grant proposals, or impact statements—forces students to write for real audiences with real stakes (Mintz, 2025).

Integrating AI Ethically and Responsibly

Rather than banning AI, tackling it means accepting it as a permanent fixture in academic landscapes. We have adapted: the internet, Google searches, and word processors led to hand-wringing about the future of writing. Educators must teach ethical integration of AI; we should show students where AI acts as a writing partner and where human authorship remains non-negotiable (Gaines, 2026).

LLMs like Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT help students select topics, identify challenges to arguments, and understand audiences. However, students are responsible for crafting theses and determining ways to support arguments. In research stages, students might use tools like Perplexity to find sources on topics, but they are responsible for selecting credible sources and understanding why they are appropriate for research. Annotated bibliographies are an excellent assignment to practice this stage of the writing process.

Writing instructors should ensure students understand that Grammarly, Microsoft, and Google offer text-generation capabilities that are off-limits for drafts. We must encourage students to develop authentic voices, even if that means the occasional comma splice or confusing phrase, and bring unique, lived experience to their writing. When students use AI as a collaborator rather than an “answer-whisperer” that replaces independent thought, they retain ownership over their learning (Meishar-Tal, 2024, p. 706).

Shift the Mindset: Writing as Discovery

Shifting from an analog “Bluebook mindset” to a process-oriented digital model requires redefining valuable writing. When students view writing not as an arbitrary task to complete for points but as a social act that connects them to others, engagement deepens (Mintz, 2025). When students own ideas, they own writing and share their lives with readers, a process described by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of today. (Emerson, 1837/2012, p. 250)

Designing assignments that value the meandering journey of thought over polished, automated final products honors human creativity and equips students with critical thinking skills they need. We know the workplace is upon them, but as individuals, students learn that their voices, often hidden early in a course, have a wealth of substance and meaning. The sunlight of personal creativity lies beyond the stale glitter of momentary satisfaction, and the ideas our students come to value reveal the need for honest and continuous effort.

References

Emerson, R. W. (2012). Nature. In N. Baym (Ed.). The Norton Anthology of American Literature. (8th ed., pp. 214-243). W. W. Norton & Company. (Original work published in 1837).

Gaines, L. V. (2026, January 28). To keep AI out of her classroom, this high school English teacher went analog. National Public Radio [NPR]. https://www.npr.org/2026/01/28/nx-s1-5631779/ai-schools-teachers-students

Google. (2026, October 6). Translating presentation to blog post [Generative AI chat]. Gemini 3.6. https://share.gemini.google/6amfsHfDHngy

Loya, K. I. (2022). Toward deliberate college teaching: A constructivist grounded theory. College Teaching, 70(2), 247–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2021.1920880

Meishar-Tal, H. (2024). ChatGPT: The challenges it presents for writing assignments. TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning, 68(4), 705–710. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-024-00972-z

Mintz, S. (2025, May 2). Teaching writing in the age of AI: Challenges and approaches. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/higher-ed-gamma/2025/05/02/challenges-and-approaches-teaching-writing-age-ai

Musante, R. & Thompson, S. (2026, April 21-23). Beyond the blue book: Practical online alternatives to the analog writing model in virtual classes [Conference presentation]. General Education Conference, Purdue University Global, Online.

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About the Authors

Dr. Musante teaches composition at Purdue Global. He is a published writer and Beatles connoisseur, and he plans to write a comprehensive study on the band. Also, he is an avid hiker, organic gardener, and diligent reader, and he frequents estate sales here, there, and everywhere.

Dr. Thompson is the Assistant Chair of the Humanities & Social Sciences Department at Purdue Global and formerly taught in PG’s English & Rhetoric Department for over 18 years. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and lives in San Antonio, TX.