Teaching the daily newsroom course at TMU (JRN851/Masthead/OTR) has prompted more than a few ideas for research avenues. I started with the Newsroom Notes workshops, wherein I invited guest speakers to fill in the gaps our students self-reported in their own education. Topics for Newsroom Notes included everything from how to break into photojournalism to how to deal with microaggressions in the newsroom to the ethics of using AI in journalistic work.

That was my introduction to SoTL research (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning), so I published my Newsroom Notes research in Facts & Frictions, and took on a new SoTL project to explore how my students were using AI tools in my newsroom course and perhaps measuring the mindfulness of that usage.

In F2024, I started talking about the ethics of using AI tools in my student newsroom, and I added a simple boilerplate message to the bottom of all the articles in an effort of transparency with our audience:

For F2025, I worked with the TMU Research Ethics Board again to incorporate the research project into a classroom setting with the following research questions.

RQ1. How does embedding an AI-disclosure field within a course-based publishing workflow influence students’ awareness of their AI use?

RQ2. How do user-experience (UX) design choices in an AI-disclosure field shape students’ ethical reasoning and reflective practice regarding AI use?

RQ3. How does sustained engagement with AI disclosure practices influence students’ perceptions of professional responsibility, authorship, and disciplinary norms in journalism?

I designed an artifact in the form of an AI disclosure field in the CMS (WordPress) of the course that my students would need to fill out for every new story they produced.

The text in this field appears at the bottom of the story and is specific in the use of AI tools for that story, which is a more accurate form of transparency with the audience.