Name: Katrina Zalatan
Title: Teaching Professor, Director - Philip Rauch Center for Business Communication
College/Department: College of Business/Management
Course: BUS 203 - Business Communication II
Student Enrollment: 450
Proposal: In Business Communication II (BUS 203), students refine their ability to write persuasively to achieve business goals. The use of Generative AI has been prohibited. This project opens the door for BUS 203 students to use Generative AI as a tool to strengthen both their writing and their agency as business communicators. During our pilot, BUS 203 students will learn how to prompt two different large language models (LLMs) within a Lehigh LibreChat environment to provide “tutor/coach” feedback about their written communication. Students will be challenged to evaluate LLM feedback and think critically about if and how they will edit their original work. Ultimately, students will learn the distinction between LLM as co-author and LLM as tutor or “coach” (a role that helps people grow without doing the work for them). Students will also learn more about the larger context, capabilities, and limitations of Generative AI tools, including how and why workplaces may vary in their adoption of Generative AI for communication purposes.
This project was inspired by developments in the field of business communication, the innovative expertise of our CITL team, and our College of Business Year of Learning theme of “AI at Work: New Roles and Smarter Systems.”
CITL/I&O Collaborators: Jeremy Mack, Jim Monek, Rob Weidman