1.1 Is this good? Supporting learner evaluations of written texts across disciplines and technologies

Erin Vearncombe, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy (ISUP), UTM 
Chris Eaton, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream & Associate Director, Research, ISUP, UTM
Sarah Flood, 3rd-year undergraduate in Sociology; Research Assistant, ISUP, UTM
Talla Enaya, undergraduate alumna, UTM; Program Assistant, Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy, UTM

Filtering the Noise: Tools, Trends, and Tensions             

Evaluative judgment refers to the capability to make informed, defensible decisions about the quality of work (Tai et al., 2018). This capability has always been central to academic success and professional practice, yet it has remained largely implicit in our teaching and learning activities (Eaton et al., 2025). Learners are regularly asked to find credible sources, provide peer feedback, and revise their work, but they are rarely taught how to judge quality in these contexts. The increasing influence of generative AI has brought evaluative judgment into sharper focus (Bearman & Ajjawi, 2023). While GenAI brings noise into our teaching, it can also filter out pedagogical clatter, helping us see more clearly which capabilities we need to prioritize.

This interactive workshop invites participants to practice evaluative judgment and then design ways to teach it. Through activities including experimentation with a shared genre and collaborative revision using "revision dice," participants will experience how judgment becomes visible and debatable when we make criteria explicit. Working individually and in small groups, participants will surface tacit standards experts use when evaluating work, identify where evaluative judgment already exists (or could exist) in their courses, and design concrete teaching interventions suited to their disciplinary contexts. Participants will leave with revised course materials and discipline-specific strategies for scaffolding evaluative judgment, strengthening a core learning outcome fundamental to thinking and working in our fields. Please note that a personal laptop may be useful for participation in selected research activities.