A mix of approaches in this term's asynch OWC

I'm again teaching an asynchronous first-year online writing course (OWC) this term, and in an environment of increasing AI apps in which teachers not only worry about academic integrity but have more fundamental concerns about what it means to teach writing, I have found myself working from established practices while still refining them to account for the fast-paced changes we're facing.

I'm engaged in a variety of practices to try to maintain a writing-heavy class environment, some of which I've written about individually before:

• I'm again using the "textual brew" of unusual texts and discussion prompts.
• I'm trying to strengthen the relationship between the discussion posts and the major course projects.
• Speaking of discussions, I'm using them in a tried-and-true way to see a great deal of informal student writing: It's mid week 4, and in a class of 20 we're already over 550 posts (including my contributions).
• Drawing on the fundamental nature of low-stakes, informal writing, I'm having students in mini  assignments--right on the discussions!--analyze and revise their own posts; e.g., revising out instances of the verb "to be" in a post they choose.
  
• I've included the stoplight approach to AI that I mentioned last time.
• I'm asking students to include a one-page metacommentary about their use of AI in conjunction with that stoplight approach.
  
• Working with several of my colleagues in a mini teaching circle, I've assigned a fantastic book that helps students take a critical look at technology, Jason Ohler's Taming the Beast.

How's it all going? Talk to me after the quarter is over. However, I'm enjoying it: The challenge is there. These practices have created a productive pressure on my pedagogical approaches.