ENG 6939 - Spring 2026 - Neal

This graduate seminar examines writing assessment, emphasizing how digital technologies and contemporary language debates are reshaping writing assessment theory and practice. The course explores assessment theory (post-psychometric validity, algorithmic bias, culturally sustaining assessment), large-scale assessments (standardized testing, program evaluation, automated scoring), and classroom assessment (formative feedback, summative evaluation, multimodal grading, ePortfolios, AI-assisted feedback). The seminar combines theory with practice, requiring the reading contemporary scholarship as well as designing and critiquing writing assessment instruments. Key issues include:

• AI and Assessment: AI disruption of traditional models, detection technologies, and AI response/feedback
• Algorithmic Ethics: Machine learning in writing evaluation, biases in automated scoring, assessment data
•  Multimodal Assessment: Evaluation of compositions beyond traditional texts
• Language Standardization: Assessment’s role in perpetuating/challenging linguistic standards and biases

Requirements: This course fulfills the Composition and Rhetoric PhD requirement for Digital Revolution and Convergence Culture.