Instructor Survey on AI Usage

In Spring 2025, we at Broadview conducted a survey to learn about academics’ attitudes and classroom practices as they pertained to generative AI (GenAI). Over its 40 years as a company, Broadview has remained steadfastly committed to the pedagogical benefits of inexpensive textbooks, and the advent of GenAI hasn’t curbed that commitment. But the rapid and broad adoption of the technology in almost every sphere of our lives caused us (in tandem with so many others!) to wonder: how does this affect what we do? And because what we do depends on what you do as instructors, we tried to gather some information to help us better understand how you may or may not be using AI in your current undergraduate writing courses.

Opinions on the subject are passionate and vary widely, and we weren’t surprised to find this reflected in the survey results. We’d like to share those results with you: complete details are available in Excel format here.

The flurry of conversations surrounding artificial intelligence is in no way subsiding, and just as instructors, departments, and institutions continue to assess the benefits and drawbacks of AI’s interruption of higher education, Broadview will, too. Please continue to let us know what you think—your thoughts make their way into our books.

Summary of AI Feedback Survey*

It’s safe to say that academics’ general attitudes are largely mixed, with 20 percent feeling some degree of positivity and 24 percent feeling some degree of negativity, while 56 percent have mixed feelings or are neutral.

When we dove a bit deeper into attitudes, we were surprised to find that not one single academic agreed with the statement, “I think that AI is a positive development, and I encourage students to use it.” Seventy-two percent (36 of 50), rather, believed that “AI is an unavoidable reality, regardless of whether it’s a good thing,” and encourage students to learn how to use it responsibly.

That said, a decided majority of instructors (78 percent) feel that students either occasionally or frequently use AI in an irresponsible and/or unsanctioned manner.

The degree to which AI has changed the Composition classroom over such a short period is startling. Almost all instructors (94 percent) now incorporate instruction in AI into the classroom.

And the four most common contexts in which AI is used or discussed: ethics; idea generation; grammar assistance; and as a research tool.

The three largest ethical concerns (among many others) that you have about integrating AI into your courses are worries about students’ over-reliance on AI; the accuracy and credibility of AI-generated information; and the drawback to developing students’ writing skills.

A concluding portion of the survey caused some surprise. Despite the wide range of instructors’ opinions on a variety of facets about AI—some entirely at odds with one another—94 percent of you believe that first-year composition textbooks need to include either a full chapter on AI or cover AI content throughout the textbook, wherever appropriate.

*50 respondents (a variety of academics, all of whom teach Composition) were solicited for feedback via email, postcard mailouts, and at the 2025 CCCC in Baltimore. Responses were collected between March and May 2025.