Liz Minei

Department of Communication Studies

Incorporating AI in Project Planning at the Undergraduate and Graduate Level

Introduction: Courses that require the execution of project planning for students spanning the semester often require the instructor to teach students to engage with the “devil’s advocate” as a means of challenging cognitive bias and avoiding groupthink, especially since the tendency to fall into groupthink results in poor outcomes and decisions that are made too quickly in favor of keeping the peace. Sometimes, challenging cognitive bias requires assigning other students the role of critical thinker of a proposed plan, allowing for review and feedback in dyadic settings. Other times, such as group or team situations, this method is carried out as a portion of the planning stages of the project assigned by the professor. Many times, the professor is placed in the role of offering critical feedback or suggestions along the lines of “what if X occurs, what is the backup plan?” This AI artifact can give professors a chance to guide students through the process of autonomy in the long-term planning and execution of a guided project (e.g., group or teamwork at the undergraduate level or thesis and capstone students at the graduate program), particularly because generative AI, like ChatGPT can give openings to challenge biases if asked to do so. In other words, students can be coached to think of ChatGPT as a potential well-meaning critic of their work, who might just open their eyes to flaws that can be addressed in advance. 

Sample Class 1: Group Communication (Undergraduate) Com 3078

Students are required to apply group communication principles to a philanthropy project spanning the last 8 weeks of class. Students learn how to combat groupthink by challenging various parts of their projects in the planning stages, and are required to answer 3 cognitive bias questions (covered in class; e.g., “Tell me where this plan can go wrong/Strengths and Weaknesses of this plan?” or “What are potential (external) disruptions and how can we plan for/avoid that disruption NOW?”or “How might someone outside our group (mis)perceive our actions?” or “What ideas might be outside the realm of possibility? What if funds were unlimited?”) as a means of challenging groupthink and as a best-practice for completing the project. 

Use of AI for Faculty: Notes

The AI portion of this assignment was created and added on to two assignments, in different sections, that had already been run for years without the AI portion. The intention to add these AI prompts, particularly in courses where students would be engaging in brainstorming, was to get them to think through their project from the perspective of challenging their own ideas. Groups, especially undergraduates in the planning phase of a project, tend to reach consensus very quickly as a means of keeping the peace. Asking them to run their “decision” through AI-guided questions can bring awareness to the ways in which their initial ideas might be good, but flawed.  

Use of AI: Students can be guided to input portions of their project plan into a generative AI program like ChatGPT and ask specific questions that analyze the plan as they have created it. Example questions can be:

1. Review this plan for feasibility-what portions can be completed in 6 weeks and what portions are beyond the scope of the time frame. 
2. Review this plan from an impression management standpoint. How might this plan create tensions for recipients that might not be apparent at this time (ex: students that want to partner with members of the homeless population are often unaware that their plans to film homeless individuals being gifted some element can be considered insensitive).
3. What flaws, considerations, or concerns did AI uncover about your groups’ decision that prompted you to alter some element of your plan, or create a contingency?

Sample Class 2: Final Project Bootcamp(Graduate Level) Com 9960

Students in the Masters Final Project Bootcamp class spend the semester creating the first portion of their project outline from brainstorming ideas about potential topics, all the way to the creation of a start-to-finish project outline with portions of written text (e.g., rationale and introduction). Often, the instructor serves in an advisor capacity, asking questions like “What are the goals of the project?” and “How are you planning on managing data to address the scope of the research questions?” 

Use of AI: Students can extend their ideas further by using generative AI like ChatGPT to assist in challenging their ideas, rather than generating the ideas. Students can enter portions of their assignments into the prompt and ask questions that can assist in challenging or building on ideas for guidance. Examples of questions can be “what other peer-reviewed readings can assist me in developing this topic further? Please search the internet for articles and provide the links to the articles.” 

Sample Flow

The following screenshots demonstrate the kind of prompt students can answer as well as the dialogue presented by ChatGPT. 

Photo 1: The first screenshot below shows the kind of prompt that students might use to start the conversation. Instructors can encourage students in any number of directions concerning what kinds of information to load into the ChatGPT question field. Below, the prompt is fairly simple but students can add additional details. 

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Sample Instructions for Generating Topics for a Final Master’s Thesis or Capstone

Topic Brainstorming Document

Directions: The purpose of this assignment is to explore topics. This document can be useful for people who have no idea what they want to spend time on and also for people who feel ‘sure’ about their selected topic. By the end of this document, I want you to have generated as many different good, bad, and ugly topics as possible (yes, really!). (One note: Please don’t “dial it in” for this assignment. It’s tempting to just answer quickly, but I will be reading and responding to your document, so please give it the old Master’s student try!)

Part 1: In this first section, we are just going to get warmed up by answering questions that can lead to topics. Jot down the first thought that comes to your mind–I don’t want you to belabor the answers, just see what sparks your interests (1-2 sentences for each):

1. Review all of the classes you’ve taken and the subjects you’ve covered. Which was your favorite class and topic (Umbrella Topic; should be fairly broad)? 

2. Write down why you got into this field of study:

3. Consider what you like to read about in your free time, especially things related to your field. This list might include books, news articles, or blogs:

4. Think of people in your field who you admire or aspire to be like. List one influential person and then include what you like about them and their work:

5. Think about who you want to be and what you want to achieve from this project. Write down a little goal and a BIG goal. 

Part 2: The spirit of this document is just to play with ideas and get them all out on paper. I invite you to go a bit more in-depth here with this section. You might surprise yourself. 

1. In the space below, please list topics that would be so completely boring to you that you would never finish this final project. Please list at least 5 boring, terrible, undesirable, waste-of-time topics that you would hate.
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2. Now that we got the boring, terrible stuff out of the way, you’re ready for great ideas! I want you to list 5 areas of study, ideas, directions, possibilities for topics in communication that are INTERESTING. You’re not committing here, but what are you interested in?
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3. What are some communication problems or issues that have come into your awareness recently? What are you seeing occurring in social settings, corporate settings, workplace settings, public relations settings, etc that are becoming a greater ‘public’ conversation? Are these problems of interest for you to contribute your voice to the conversation?

4. Even if you are NOT leaning towards a capstone at this time, I want you to think of your current topic in a different way. (You might use this section later for a practical recommendation section in your thesis). What would an interesting APPLIED project look like to you that can speak to a topic in communication? Some examples of applied projects are: Training Programs/Units for Practitioners or Consultants, a PR Campaign about an issue, An Internal Campaign for Employees (e.g., Lululemon campaign from feedback video), a Case Study, a Redesign of an Organizational Tool, a Specific Tool created for your own organization, a policy white paper, a series of informative blog posts, etc. Detail in a few sentences what this Applied outcome might look like or entail. 

Part 3: Narrowing down a bit, I want you to think about some inspiration from the content that you’ve generated above. Let’s take some time to focus on an area with some depth. 

1. Select one project idea from above: 

2. Jot a question that you might ask pertaining to the topic (Does NOT have to be an RQ):

3. How might you gather data for this topic?

4. Does this topic make you feel inspired and excited? 

Part 4: Challenging the Ideas Further-Using the information you completed in Part 3, open a generative AI program like ChatGPT and ask the following questions. Input your assessment of each chat response and include a summation of how this direction can be useful to your project, especially since generative AI can be another form of brainstorming, if asked the right kinds of questions. Think of ChatGPT as a friend with knowledge about your topic that can help you push for more insight and different research angles that you might not have thought about!

Start: Enter into the prompt box: “I am a masters student in a Corporate Communication program starting my masters thesis on Sensemaking in New Workplace Cohorts. I want to get some direction for where I can start building resources and timely works to consider reading.” 

(Here is an example of what it might look like filled out)

Prompt for ChatGPT	Response from ChatGPT	Assessment of Usefulness
What existing theories or peer reviewed publications might be a good starting point for [My Topic on…]. Please use GoogleScholar for up to date references that might be useful for me to review. **Sometimes ChatGPT will give you responses that are not quite in line with what you’re looking for. Feel free to engage in a “dialogue” with AI for more clarification about what you need. An example might be: “These articles are not quite right. Please send peer reviewed articles that were published in 2020 or later and specifically address sensemaking in the workplace”	Your thesis on “Sensemaking in New Workplace Cohorts” can draw on a variety of frameworks and recent studies. Here are some suggested directions and key resources:Foundational TheoriesWeick’s Sensemaking Framework: Karl Weick’s work on sensemaking remains a cornerstone. His theory focuses on how individuals construct meaning in organizations through processes like enactment, selection, and retention.Dervin’s Sensemaking Methodology: Dervin’s approach emphasizes bridging knowledge gaps and constructing meaning in interaction, particularly in communication and information sciences.Recent StudiesThe Multifaceted Sensemaking Theory (2023): A recent systematic literature review explores updated sensemaking frameworks, including a nine-stage model integrating past theories with modern organizational contexts. This could provide a conceptual lens for your research (source: MDPI)【8】.Sensemaking in Global Teams (2024): This study analyzes how employees navigate connectivity expectations and work-life boundaries in global teams. It highlights collaborative sensemaking and sensegiving as critical processes in managing organizational norms (source: National Communication Association)【9】.	I will make use of these two readings and start reviewing additional studies that utilize them. I will use these as a jumping off point in narrowing down my research.
What are possible audiences or applications that would benefit from a project on [My Topic on…].	Timely ApplicationsInvestigate the impact of remote work and hybrid workplace dynamics on sensemaking, particularly in diverse teams.Explore how sensemaking affects knowledge-sharing, onboarding, and cohesion within newly formed workplace cohorts.	I will look into case studies that have written on these topics and see I want to go the capstone route in creating a case study.
What might be the next steps for completing a project on [My topic]? In other words, what might be a strong direction for my project if it was a thesis? What about a direction for a capstone based on the information that I provided?	Next StepsLiterature Review: Examine Weick’s and Dervin’s foundational texts and recent works like those mentioned above.Methodologies: Look into thematic or iterative analysis methods, as they are common in recent studies for understanding workplace communication and behavior.Target Journals: Focus on publications in organizational communication, information sciences, and human resource management.	I can review the different parts that AI suggested to see if there are angles that would be useful in the overall project

Final Reflection Question (Not generated by AI, please): How did the use of ChatGPT help extend the way you have conceptualized your project? What portions seem most relevant and useful for your project? What ideas were presented that won’t fit your project? Lastly, please provide some feedback for the professor on this assignment. What kinds of questions can I help answer or directions are still unanswered?