HomeBlogWriting Alumni Perceptions of Generative AIby Jessie L. Moore and Nolan SchultheisAugust 4, 2025 Share: Section NavigationSkip section navigationIn this sectionPodcasts – Home 60-Second SoTL Limed: Teaching with a Twist Making College “Worth It” Special Series First-Year Seminars Land Acknowledgement Making College “Worth It” – Season 2, Episode 10 In this episode, Nolan and Jessie talk with Travis Maynard, Tim Peeples, and Paula Rosinski about their recent research on alumni perceptions of generative AI. Drs. Maynard, Peeples, and Rosinski share what they’re learning about the role of AI in professionals’ day-to-day lives, across professional, civic, and personal spaces. They also highlight what they’ve learned about “power users” of AI and suggest implications for teaching and practicing effective AI use in higher education. View a transcript of this episode. Meet our Guests Travis Maynard is an Assistant Professor of English at Elon University where he teaches courses in the Professional Writing and Rhetoric program. Dr. Maynard’s research interests include multimodal composition and alumni writing experiences. In the classroom he enjoys giving students the opportunity to be creative while developing their rhetorical thinking and technological skills. He finds joy in the consistently impressive work his students create. His work has recently appeared in Computers and Composition, Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments, and Writing Beyond the University: Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing. Tim Peeples is Senior Associate Provost Emeritus and Professor of Humanities at Elon University. He also holds the position of Senior Scholar in the Center for Engaged Learning. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Mattering of Liberal Education: Isocrates, Rhetoric, and New Materialisms. Paula Rosinski is professor of Professional Writing & Rhetoric and director of Writing Across the University in the Center for Writing Excellence at Elon University where she co-coordinates the Disciplinary Writing Consultants program, co-chairs her institution’s AI Task Force, and previously led her institution’s Quality Enhancement Plan on Writing Excellence. Paula serves on the Association of Writing Across the Curriculum’s (AWAC) Executive Committee (previously as member-at-large and currently as treasurer) and her recent research focuses on WAC faculty AI professional development, alumni AI professional writing practices, and writing center consultant and client attitudes towards AI. Her recent publications include the co-edited collection, Writing Beyond the University: Preparing Lifelong Learners for Lifewide Writing (Center for Engaged Learning Open Access Book Series, 2022) and the co-authored chapter, “Understanding the Landscape of Generative AI Use among Writing Center Clients,” forthcoming in Writing Centers and AI: Generating Early Conversations (Eds. Elisabeth Buck and Joshua Botvin, WAC Clearinghouse Perspectives on Writing). Episode Credits This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, and Nolan Schultheis, a second-year student at Elon University, studying Psychology with an interest in law. Jessie L. Moore also edited the episode. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. Episode art was created by Nolan Schultheis and Jennie Goforth. Funky Percussions is by Denys Kyshchuk (@audiocoffeemusic) - https://www.audiocoffee.net/. Soft Beat is by ComaStudio. Generative AI Tools Mentioned in the Episode ChatGPT DALL-E (for image generation) Runway (for video generation) Eleven Labs (for voice and audio generation) Explore Center Resources Related to this Episode Writing Beyond the University GenAI’s Rapid Evolution Challenges University Instruction Many students and parents are employment-focused, and depending on the country you teach in, at a public institution, your government may require you to show job market applicability. I teach in a professional program (communications), and we talk a lot… Navigating the Moral GenAI Panic 60-Second SoTL – Episode 93 What happens when we move beyond GenAI panic—and focus instead on helping students learn to use these tools ethically and effectively? This episode highlights Jennifer Krebsbach and Victoria Cross’s study of student learning in a… AI-Supported Feedback Uptake 60-Second SoTL – Episode 92 How might educators use AI to support students’ interpretation and uptake of feedback? In this episode, Jessie shares a recent mixed-methods study about student perceptions of AI’s potential to support learners’ reflection on and engagement… GenAI Can Make Some Tasks Easier. But At What Cost? Back during the pandemic, instructors were all sent home to teach online. Many had no training or experience with this modality. As I realized I needed to accommodate students who had spread to multiple time zones and home responsibilities, asynchronous… GenAI in Higher Education: Embrace, Deny, or Somewhere In Between My continued involvement with the Center of Engaged Learning at Elon University has led to my current role as a co-leader of the 2026-2028 Research Seminar on Rethinking Engaged Learning in the Age of GenAI. I am writing this blog… The Affordances and Risks of Generative AI for Training Undergraduate Researchers Undergraduate research is credited with helping students develop cognitive abilities along with an understanding of the way that research happens, among other benefits, when done well. Some characteristics of high-quality undergraduate research include working on unsolved research problems (Bhattacharyya, Chan, and Waraczynski 2018) working closely with faculty having some autonomy in the research decisions (Gilmore et… 1 2 … 9 10 >
