- Online
- $745
For better and for worse, AI is changing how we write and challenging how we think about writing. This hands-on course introduces you to the tools, techniques and questions that define what it means to write well in the age of generative AI. Whether you're crafting stories, reports, essays, blogs or other content, you'll learn how to work with AI, not against it, while retaining and enhancing your own authentic, human voice.
At the end of eight weeks, you’ll leave with greater confidence writing with AI, gained through thoughtful weekly exercises, guided experiments, and both peer and instructor feedback. You’ll learn how to prompt more effectively and revise AI-generated text with intention. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll learn to distinguish where AI helps your writing, and where it doesn’t, so that you can go further and get there faster while staying true to yourself.
This course emphasizes both skill-building and critical thinking around AI, and is suitable for writers of all backgrounds. No technical experience is required, just curiosity, a willingness to write and an open mind.
Please note: This course also features a guest lecture and Q&A with Elliot Reed, a writer who specializes in the kind of writing that AI only wishes it could produce. Elliot has written for BookPost, LitHub, Little Star, and The New York Times, and his novel A Key to Treehouse Living ("Subtle, daring, brilliant."—Padgett Powell) received a Kirkus starred review and was long-listed for the Mark Twain Prize.
How feedback works in the course
- Each week, you’ll post a short exercise or assignment to the discussion forum.
- You’ll have the chance to receive guidance from the instructor during a weekly optional live Zoom session, where we’ll workshop submissions, troubleshoot challenges and reflect together.
- You’ll also be responsible for giving constructive peer feedback on the discussion forum to learn from each other’s strategies, voices and experiments.
- You’ll complete two larger assignments in week 3 and week 7 to deepen your skills. The instructor (no AI bots here!) will provide personalized written feedback on the assignments.
Course outline
Week 1: How AI Writes, and What That Means for You
Week 2: Prompting for Voice, Clarity, and Control
Week 3: Larger Assignment 1—Prompts and Revisions
Week 4: Notes, Drafts, Finished Products—AI as an Accelerator
Week 5: Ethics, Authorship, and AI Transparency
Week 6: Editing with AI—Polishing, Trimming, Fact-Checking
Week 7: Larger Assignment 2—Genre and Audience Project
Week 8: Process and Reflection Showcase
How am I assessed?
This course is marked complete/incomplete, and is based on your attendance and participation. Your instructor provides you personalized feedback on the assignments you hand in.
Record of completion
A record of completion will be emailed to students who participate and satisfy the course requirements within two weeks of the course end date. Course completion means 80% attendance and/or 80% completion of mandatory assignments.
Expected effort
You should allow two to three hours per week to complete your assignments, read articles and case studies, watch videos and participate in optional drop-in Zoom sessions.
Technology requirements
To take this course, you’ll need access to:
- an email account
- a computer, laptop or tablet under five years old and using Windows or Mac Operating System (OS)
- the latest version of a web browser (or previous major version release)
- a reliable internet connection
- a video camera and microphone on your device if you wish to join the Zoom drop-in sessions.
Course format
This course is 100% online and instructor-supported. There are no live online classes. You can log on at any time, and complete coursework at your own pace. Every week, your instructor releases a new lesson, which includes notes, articles, readings and resources, exercises and assignments.
Weekly office hours
Wednesdays, 5:15 - 6:00pm Pacific Time
This course offers optional weekly drop-in virtual office hours. Join your instructor and classmates by video conferencing to discuss course materials and assignments, receive feedback and ask questions. Receive feedback, and discuss assignments with your instructor and classmates.
Please note you can log in to your course in Canvas for up to three weeks after the course ends. You'll no longer be able to access course materials after this time.