Led by Sydney Sullivan, this webinar explores a student-inclusive approach to AI policy design in online writing instruction. Rather than imposing static, instructor-written policies about generative AI, participants will learn how to co-author classroom guidelines with students—promoting critical literacy, rhetorical awareness, and shared responsibility in digital spaces.
We will explore a replicable, four-phase model for implementing participatory AI policy development in online settings. This includes activities such as anonymous polling, asynchronous forums, Padlet-based brainstorming, and collaborative syllabus clause drafting. Drawing from threshold concepts in Writing Studies—particularly authorship, the rhetorical situation, and writing as knowledge-making (Adler-Kassner & Wardle, 2015)—the session shows how policy writing can itself become a writing assignment that strengthens rhetorical thinking and digital agency.
The approach is further grounded in Asao Inoue’s labor-based assessment theory, which reimagines classroom authority through dialogic, values-based co-creation (Inoue, 2019). Additionally, the session draws on Sambell and McDowell’s (1998) insights about the “hidden curriculum” embedded in policy and assessment design—offering strategies to make implicit expectations visible and student-centered. Sambell, McDowell, and Montgomery (2013) extend this work into the online learning context, where assessment-for-learning practices can foster trust and transparency.
In light of recent institutional moves toward adopting enterprise AI tools like ChatGPT Edu (e.g., San Diego State University IT Division, 2025), which are often introduced without inclusive dialogue, the session addresses the need for critical AI literacy frameworks that resist top-down implementation. Rather than framing policy as punishment or risk mitigation, the webinar encourages attendees to treat it as a collaborative artifact that evolves in response to student voices, technological shifts, and institutional tensions.
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