Lesson 7 – Takeaways

Assessment in the Generative AI era requires us to design for deeper student engagement, critical thinking, and learner self-awareness.

The most valuable part of assessment is not simply producing an end product. It lies within the learning process itself. It is assessment as learning that provides opportunities to practice, make mistakes, engage in creative struggle, reflect, and receive feedback.

We need to support learners to explore Generative AI use and work out a balance between supported use and overreliance.

As professors, redesigning your assessments will happen over time and by increments. Look for those opportunities to make changes and try new things over time.

It is okay to position new activities and assignments as exploration – for both you as a teacher and your students. Being honest about not knowing everything about Generative AI is okay. Given how rapidly it changes, we will always be in a state of continuous learning and adaptation. Being a co-learner and collaborator with students through these Generative AI explorations adds authenticity to the experience.

Key Takeaways

Set the stage for GenAI use.
Provide opportunities for students to practice using GenAI in small, low-stakes activities. Reinforce why it is important to develop as intentional, critical collaborators with GenAI through on-going class discussion.

State your expectations clearly.
Use basic language and examples to specify when and how AI use permitted in part of the assignment.

Focus on the process.
Break larger assignment into sequenced, scaffolded tasks that build or iterate across different stages. To maximize student feedback, consider including group activities with peer review.

Use in-class time for students to demonstrate or practice skills/understanding.
Scaffolded activities could start in class and have components that students complete out of class.

Make reflection and transparency an integral, graded part of the assessment.
This includes requiring students to acknowledge and share documentation of their GenAI use as part of their submission.

Emphasize critical thinking, metacognition, reflection.
Provide opportunities for students to reflect on their use of GenAI for learning and work support. This supports students to understand the pros and cons of off-loading different tasks to GenAI. It also helps students to develop into intentional, critical collaborators with GenAI.

Support students to retain agency, voice, creativity, and responsibility for their work.
Help students understand the importance of being the “human in the loop”. This involves verifying the accuracy of results, ensuring the quality of their work, and expressing their true individual voices and creativity.

Create a culture of academic integrity.
Clearly explain the purpose of the assignments and your rationale for when GenAI use is and is not allowed. Use positive, learning-centred language that focuses on the benefits of appropriate use rather than the punishments. Be mindful of contextual pressures that could lead to GenAI misuse, such as back-to-back assessment deadlines, busy work and school lives, maintaining high grades, when determining assignment parameters.

Consider the ethical, equity, and privacy/security implications of GenAI use.
Provide opportunities for students to explore and consider ethical issues such as copyright, impact on the environment, equity, and information privacy. This may include chances to research and discuss GenAI companies, their approach to data model training, and tool terms of use.