Writing to learn undergraduate human physiology with artificial intelligence

It is well-accepted that writing promotes both critical thinking and learning 1,2 . “Writing to Learn” is a strategy that encourages students to think deeply and extend their thinking about what they are reading. In doing this, students are actively involved in researching complex topics and describing concepts in an essay. Rather than being assigned a chapter to read before class, researching and writing an essay on an assigned topic provides a more effective and active approach to learning. Here, we describe the implementation of “writing-to-learn” for an advanced undergraduate human physiology class 3,4 . Each class has an assigned discussion topic, which is the essay topic. The essay's preparation, revisions, and editing establish a solid understanding of the material but also ensure that the student can effectively communicate their knowledge comprehensively. The essay topic is the same topic the students will be asked to write for the examination. Properly preparing the essay before class will give the students insight into the topic and show what they understand. It will also provide the students insight into what they do not understand and need to focus on during the classroom discussion. The discussion, a crucial part of the learning process, fosters a collaborative environment where students can better understand complex topics and gain insight into the concepts they thought they understood or were unaware they were incorrect. After the classroom discussion, students are encouraged to return to the essay, revise it for clarity, accuracy, and thoroughness, and seek feedback before the exam. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) for background information in literature review is gaining acceptance in the scientific community. While we acknowledge that students may attempt to use AI to bypass assignments, it's important to note that AI should be seen as a tool to enhance comprehension, not a substitute for it. Regardless of whether AI is used to generate the initial essay, students must still be able to provide a written description, demonstrating their understanding of the topic. Generative AI can provide generally accurate information on a topic and creative and analytic responses to questions. While this is convenient, it does not help students' comprehension of a topic any more than reading a book or listening to a lecture. As such, students must differentiate the use of AI as a tool for comprehension rather than generating plagiaristic work. Teaching students to communicate effectively through writing will reduce their reliance on generative AI. To do this, we have students analyze and edit AI-generated essays at the conclusion of the class discussions. For example, in a large class setting, we may provide a generative AI-produced essay, pair students, and ask them to determine what is missing and to edit to improve detail. We then ask the students how they can weave this edited work into the essay they prepared for class. In the next class, as a review of the previous material, we spend time comparing the previous essays with their revised work. In doing so, we not only improve the clarity and scientific communication but also comprehension of the material. East Tennessee State University This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.