Economists reconsider AI Age Writing Course

As artificial intelligence (AI) changes classrooms and careers, UConn economics professor Metin Coşgel asks seemingly simple questions.

The answer, says Kokagel, not just about asking students to produce, but how they guide them through the writing process itself.

“AI can help with writing, but students need to own their work and be able to protect it along the way. It's not just generating the final paper at the end, as the system allows it,” he says.

This fall, Coşgel will be launching a redesigned version of UConn Economics Majors' core writing-intensive course, the Econ 2500W. The new curriculum is supported by a Education Enhancement Grant from the Liberal College of Arts and Sciences (CLA) that integrates AI tools with traditional instruction to help students improve writing, understand the learning process and graduate from the skills needed for today's workforce.

Coşgel's approach is detailed in a recent article, teaching economic writing in the age of AIGE. The process-based framework is co-authored with economics professors Richard Langlois and Thomas Miceli. This work outlines how AI can enhance student learning by framing creation as a structured, iterative process.

“We don't want students to be professional AI users. We want to learn how to write well with them,” says Coşgel. “That means linking it to the necessary analog skills you want to graduate from AI.”

Teach me to write like an economist

Koschel's research interests have usually little to do with emerging technologies, focusing instead on topics such as the long-term economic history of the Ottoman Empire, the relationship between state and religion, and the impact of ethnic and racial diversity on the performance of the American offshore whaling industry. His path to AI began somewhat unexpectedly, with administrative assignments.

Two years ago he was asked to chair the search committee for new faculty positions in economics, part of CLAS faculty cluster employment focusing on artificial intelligence and machine learning. To prepare, Kochel began to learn the basics and soon realized he was increasingly interested in how AI is applied to education.

“The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn,” he says.

Around the same time, Coşgel was appointed director of undergraduate studies in economics and was tasked with rethinking how he approached education in the age of AI.

His new administrative role, combined with growing interest in AI, sparked conversations with colleagues about how technology in one of UConn's biggest majors can support education. The Economics Program serves more than 1,000 students, and all must complete at least one Writing Intensive (W) course.

Coşgel saw an opportunity to rethink not only how AI is a writing tool, but also how assignments are taught and evaluated in the W course.

Rather than focusing solely on the final paper, his process-based model highlights a series of step-by-step steps that give students multiple opportunities to build skills and reflect their learning, such as overviews, drafts, discussion submissions, and presentations.

“We want to be in a situation where students do their own calculations. We understand that using AI has advantages and costs in that it's not a learning skill,” he says.

Coşgel tested the model in the Honors course this past year, and his findings helped inform his recent articles. This fall, he will pilot the AI integrated version of the ECON 2500W in two sections. By spring 2026, he hopes to deploy models in every section of the course.

To ensure consistency, especially in the sections taught by graduate assistants, he also plans to develop standard husky tect courses that instructors can adapt to their classes. The goal is to give all students regardless of section a strong, consistent foundation in writing for economics.

Cross Campus Collaboration

Coşgel's efforts are part of a broader campus-wide conversation about how UConn is changing the way UConn teaches and learns.

Last year he served on the CLAS Task Force, exploring AI opportunities and concerns. He also participates in a group organized by the Centre for Excellence in Education and Learning (CETL), focusing on deliberate teaching in AI.

According to Coşgel, faculty addresses concerns about academic integrity, student learning, and the evolving role of generation AI in higher education. He says many people tend to fall into one of two camps. They are extremely resistant and want to ban AI from the classroom, and those who are keen on the possibilities, but often overlook their limits.

“As an economist, we know that whenever you do something there is a cost and a profit, and you do something when the profit is greater than the cost,” says Kochel. “It becomes more important to understand the costs and benefits of AI.”

Despite concerns about excessive reliance on AI, Kochel believes there is reason to want it. Strategically used AI can democratize access to knowledge and enable students to understand complex topics more quickly.

“For me, the possibilities are endless and it's fascinating to see where it's heading,” he says.