Strategies for Creating “Generative AI-Resistant” Assessments

The use of generative-AI tools in education has recently garnered significant attention, placing educators in a unique position to consider their roles in higher education and how students engage with such tools. In a previous blog post, we introduced AI technologies and their endless capabilities, as well as potential implications for higher education. Additionally, we provided advice on considerations, precautions, and ethical concerns for using generative-AI in the classroom.

While some educators are excited about integrating AI collaboration into their teaching practices, others are apprehensive about its potential misuse by students. To address these concerns, this blog post presents assignment strategies that can be more “generative AI-resistant.” There are no “AI-proof” assessments, but these suggestions should serve as starting points for creating authentic assignments and/or ones that require demonstration of original and critical thinking.

Assessment Strategies

Be specific and personal

Consider creating assessments that involve tasks ChatGPT struggles to do such as referring to personal anecdotes or student reflections, referencing current events and recent field developments, or administering interviews or making references to specific course materials. Asking students to connect specific details from course materials (readings, lectures, experiments, etc.) to their personal lives or career paths can also help students see relevance in their course activities and engage with them on a deeper level.

Go beyond research papers

Instead of asking students to create a research paper that ChatGPT could do for them, ask students to create an annotated reference list that demonstrates their ability to apply proper research methods and analysis of resources collected. Alternatively, consider asking students to write a paper analyzing a case study that you’ve created yourself.

Mix up the medium

Incorporate assignments that make use of multimedia content such as creating, writing, recording, and producing a podcast episode relevant to course content and ideas.

Flip your classroom

Consider using in-class time for activities like classroom debates and/or peer-to-peer feedback on projects. Grade those efforts that are happening in real-time and under your observation (without generative AI). Note that a flipped classroom approach also allows students to practice higher order thinking and application of the content they’ve learned through homework.

Look at grading

Consider reviewing your course grading criteria and use growth-oriented rubrics that prioritize process over product.

Ask students to show their process

Consider adding assignment elements that ask students to think about the process of their work. This could be done by requiring students to submit notes they took on sources to prepare for their papers or presentations. You could also ask students to show their work in progress as they move toward a final draft (e.g., require submission of a project outline or proposal, annotated bibliography, and multiple drafts).

Allow for growth and resubmission

Consider adding in some flexibility when students fall short of an objective by allowing for revisions or resubmissions on certain assignments. This can reduce the “high stakes” nature of assessments and associated pressures.

Make adjustments to current assessments

Review your existing assignments to see if there are areas where you can have students demonstrate their holistic growth and development. For exams, you could add supplemental reflection questions or even consider adopting oral exams.

A Note on Academic Honesty

It can be easy or tempting to spend a lot of effort trying to catch instances of academic dishonesty using tools like ChatGPT. Although there are detection tools available, such as Turnitin, the effectiveness of AI detection reports remains uncertain due to insufficient data. Please review our blog on Considerations for Using Generative AI Tools to learn more and remember how important it is to communicate explicitly with students about if, when, and how they may use AI in your class.

Learn More

Explore even more CATL resources related to AI in education:

If you have questions, concerns, or ideas specific to generative AI tools in education and the classroom, please email us at catl@uwgb.edu or set up a consultation!

Considerations for Using Generative AI Tools

Staying updated on the rapidly evolving generative-AI tools can be challenging, and educators may hold divergent (and strong!) views about them. In a previous article, we introduced generative-AI technologies, their capabilities, and implications for higher education. While some educators are enthusiastic about incorporating AI into their teaching methodologies, others may harbor doubts, apprehensions, or simply lack interest in exploring these tools. Regardless of one’s stance, understanding the disruptive impact of these technologies is crucial as we grapple with their ethical and pedagogical implications as educators.

In this article, we will explore some considerations for using generative-AI tools in the classroom, including preliminary precautions and ethical concerns. The more we understand these technologies, the better we can adapt to maximize their potential benefits while minimizing their negative impact.

Things to Consider When Using AI-Powered Tools in your Courses

Understand the inevitability of advancing AI technology.

AI, like many other recent technologies (e.g., personal computers or the internet), will continue to advance and not go away. In fact, they will progress and become better than previous models. This is not something we can “outrun.”

Encourage dialogue on the impact of AI in education

Consider discussing AI technology and its implications with your department, colleagues, and students. In what ways will generative-AI tools change the nature of learning outcomes and even careers in your discipline? How are other instructors responding? In what ways can instructors support each other as they each grapple with these questions?

Provide clear communication with your students on expectations

Whichever camp or situation you may fall into, it is always important to provide students with clear expectations for their use of AI in the classroom. Be specific in your syllabi and assignment descriptions about where and when you will allow or prohibit the use of these tools. You should also make sure whatever guidance you provide is also consistent with UWS Chapter 14 and the communications from our Provost Office. For example statements, view our Syllabus Snippets related to generative-AI. 

Use generative-AI tools with caution

Exercise caution when using generative-AI tools because the information provided by them may not always be accurate. AI creators, like OpenAI, are upfront about the fact that ChatGPT’s answers aren’t always correct. Due to their ability to hallucinate facts and resources, it’s best to avoid using these tool as a primary source. Be sure to also watch out for potential bias that can appear in outputs by these tools as they are trained on human-generated data.

Offer alternatives for privacy-minded students

If you are asking students to complete an assignment using generative-AI technology, you will also want to provide an opt-out or alternative assignment because students may legitimately not want to provide personal information to sign-up and use certain AI technologies. Many tools openly state they will sell that information.

AI detection tools are not perfect

When using Turnitin’s AI writing detection indicator, it is important to note that there is currently insufficient data to validate its effectiveness. Therefore, results from such reports should be treated as signals that additional review may be necessary. If you suspect academic misconduct, be prepared to support the claim with additional information beyond the detection tool’s report.

Consider ethical and legal issues when using AI tools

As instructors, it is also important to consider the potential ethical, legal, and security risks of AI technologies. Many generative-AI tools are “trained” on the data we put into them, so we must exercise caution when providing prompts to the tools. For example, never put students’ personal information into an AI-powered tool, as this may violate FERPA. Asking students to submit their work (or doing it yourself) to get feedback from ChatGPT or a similar resource puts their intellectual property into the public domain. This should not be done without their explicit consent.

Prepare students to use AI effectively

If you assign tasks that require students to use AI technology, it is important to provide clear instructions about how to do so and not assume students already know. Consider incorporating a discussion on the benefits, limitations, cautions, and ethics of using generative-AI. This could be a valuable in-class activity.

Don’t get caught up in the smoke

Although the capabilities of generative-AI can be scary or worrying at this point, it is best to not get bogged down in the negatives of AI or focus on how to detect cheating through AI use. Are you worried about what AI tools mean for your course materials? Schedule a consultation with us. CATL is here to help!

Learn More

Explore even more CATL resources related to AI in education:

If you have questions, concerns, or ideas specific to generative AI tools in education and the classroom, please email us at catl@uwgb.edu or set up a consultation!

Scaffolding for Online Learning

As the end of the semester approaches and you begin to review the curricular structure of your courses in the near future, you may recognize the need for more robust scaffolding in content design regarding the online modality. Before reviewing and modifying your course in this capacity, it is important to know what scaffolding is, and why it is important for student learning. Scaffolding, as EdGlossary defines it in education, refers to ‘a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process’. Ultimately, the goal of scaffolding is to give students building blocks of learning that lead to better retention and acquisition of knowledge.

The most common place to start with scaffolding that can provide a significant impact is in larger assignments or assessments. A good ‘rule of thumb’ is to begin with the tasks that take a significant portion of time and energy. Breaking an assessment into smaller subtasks creates natural checkpoints for the students to gauge their understanding. This also allows you as the teacher to gain insight into how their knowledge acquisition is going and allows you to slightly alter course if the learning is not going as first imagined – check out CATL’s blog post on ‘small teaching’ for more information on that topic.

For example, if you are requiring students to ultimately create a final essay project, you could create a scaffolded or sequenced set of checkpoints to build towards the final assignment’s conclusion. The University of Michigan’s Center for Writing has a comprehensive breakdown of this sequencing:

  1. Pre-Writing: including proposals, work-in-progress presentations, and research summaries
  2. Writing: including counterarguments, notes, and drafts
  3. Revision: including peer reviews, conferences, and revision plans

The introduction of any of these concepts in an online environment requires intentionality and planning, while ensuring the students remain highly engaged throughout the process. As the students revise their papers, scheduling individual conferences, peer reviews (via online conferences, social annotations via Hypothesis, or via Canvas), and revision plans can all provide beneficial steps for a scaffolded approach to a final essay project. To ensure that the students are understanding what is required of them, be certain that you answer such critical questions as:

  • How are students able to know that they completed the steps required, and how will they know they have completed it satisfactorily?
  • How will you make the connections between the scaffolded activities and the end product clear as students progress systematically through the courses?
  • Have you clearly identified opportunities for students, particularly in the online modality, to get together remotely for feedback, thought-partnering, and/or review?

Another version of scaffolding in the online modality has to do with the structuring of how students gain an understanding of the content. The University of Buffalo’s Office of Curriculum, Assessment, and Teaching Transformation takes the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) model and utilizes it in both a standard classroom, as well as a ‘flipped classroom’ environment. The GRR model focuses on an ‘I Do’, ‘We Do’, ‘You Do’ framework that is very popular in educational scaffolding. This framework for scaffolding could be centered around a larger assignment or exam, but it does not necessarily need to be. The GRR model of scaffolding could also be utilized when breaking down a larger concept for students. See how this model could potentially be utilized in a chemistry lesson surrounding intramolecular forces:

  1. “I Do” – The instructor creates an introductory lesson introducing intramolecular forces, and discusses the types of bonds that atoms can form (ionic, covalent, etc.). The instructor then shows examples of these types of bonds utilizing different atom types via medium of choice.
  2. “We Do” – This portion of the scaffolding could take place between students, working in pairs or small groups identifying the different types of bonds, and providing examples of each. This scaffolding could also include meeting with the instructor, via Teams or Zoom, or through a discussion that provides more of a ‘guided’ approach to the concepts.
  3. “You Do” – Students work on their own to display the learning that they have gathered on the topic. This could be done with a written assignment, discussion board post, low-stake quiz, or any way that the instructor chooses to assess students’ acquisition of knowledge.

These are just a couple of examples how you can integrate scaffolding into your course content for online learning. The critical aspect of scaffolding is purposeful chunking and segmenting of complex concepts and activities for comprehensive knowledge acquisition. It is important to keep in mind that any scaffolding should continue to be aligned to course expectations and learning outcomes as students will be more successful when it is done with consistency in a holistic sense.

If you would like to learn more about how to use scaffolding for online learning in your own course or have examples of how you are already using it, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to contact the CATL office by email (CATL@uwgb.edu) to let us know where you’ve found success with these strategies, or to schedule a consultation with us.

A rusted weathervane with an overcast sky in the background

Addressing Misinformation in the Classroom

A few weeks ago, we posted about how to proactively foster information literacy in your classes. Even if you’ve taken many of the precautions we suggested, there will still inevitably come a time when misinformation arises in the classroom. Whether it is in the context of a Canvas discussion board or during an in-person discussion, an obviously false claim from a student can leave you feeling blindsided if you’re not prepared. With a little work, though, you can often turn these interactions into constructive learning opportunities. This post explores steps you can take to intervene when a student shares misinformation in one of your courses.

Ask Clarifying Questions

When a student shares something incorrect, your first instinct may be to shut them down. In order to turn this into a potential learning opportunity, however, it can be useful to allow the student space to work through what they’ve just shared. Consider asking follow-up questions to clarify what the student is saying and to probe their rationale (a method known as Socratic questioning). Without accusing or assuming, you could pose open-ended questions about where they learned this information and what they know about the source or author in terms of expertise or potential biases. These types of reflective questions help students analyze their misconceptions and may lead them to see the flaws in their own claim.

Be Cognizant of Tone and Body Language

As you engage with a student, be aware of your tone and body language (or written tone, in the case of asynchronous communications like discussion boards). Keep calm and take a moment to collect your thoughts, if needed. Once you are ready to address their remark, keep the tone conversational instead of accusatory. It is important that students don’t misconstrue your response as adversarial.

Try to gauge the student’s nonverbal cues during your dialog as well. If they seem hesitant to share once you begin asking them to clarify their claim, it might help to reassure them that complex topics often lead to misconceptions, and that they might not have had a prior chance to learn about this topic in depth. This helps emphasize that it is not a moral failing on the part of the student for believing misinformation. Instead, remind them inquiry and analysis are a natural part of the learning process (as well as a part of our institutional learning outcomes).

Offer an Invitation to Learn More

Depending on your course and the nature of the student’s misconception, your dialog might naturally segue into a side lesson to discuss the topic at hand. For example, if the claim the student made is a common misconception related to your discipline, you could use this as an opportunity to teach why the misconception exists, where it comes from, and how it might be harmful. If you have sources on hand that help illustrate your point, you might highlight how you determined your sources’ credibility and what measures the sources used to reduce potential bias in their findings, such as using a double-blind setup for a scientific study. You could also use this as an opportunity to teach about how to identify potential bias in a source. Often these situations can be a gateway for a healthy discussion about common misconceptions and real-world applications of the course’s content.

Still, it may not always be appropriate to turn a student’s remark into a teachable moment for the whole class. If a student seems particularly defensive or uncomfortable, or the topic seems emotionally charged for them, you can offer to continue the conversation with the student one-on-one after class. This allows you to shift the class’s attention back to the lesson and off of the student and prevent a situation from escalating.

Address Sensitive Issues with Extra Caution

It is worth mentioning that misconceptions can be extremely damaging when they double as microaggressions. A microaggression — or a subtle display of bias or prejudice — perpetuates harmful stereotypes or misconceptions about a group of people. The Eberly Center from Carnegie Mellon University has a quick guide on addressing microaggressions that outlines additional steps you may wish to take to mitigate the situation in addition to the ones outlined above. Another great resource is this guide on identifying and responding to microaggressions, authored by Dr. Kevin Nadal, a professor of psychology and a leading researcher on microaggressions. Responding to microaggressions in the classroom is crucial for maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment, so they should be handled with extra care.

Do You Have Other Ideas?

Handling misinformation can be tricky, but we hope that these suggestions can help you feel a bit more prepared the next time you encounter it in the classroom. How do you address students’ misconceptions in your own classes? Have any tips for turning these opportunities into teachable moments? We invite you to engage in thoughtful dialog on this topic — post a comment below or email CATL@uwgb.edu to continue the conversation!

Our special thanks go out to Preston Cherry, Christin DePouw, Lisa Lamson, J P Leary, Brian Merkel, Valerie Murrenus Pilmaier, and Jessica Warwick for their contributions to the 2021 Common CAHSS panel and follow-up 2022 IDI session that served as the inspiration for this article!

Exams, Alternative Assessments, and the Question of Proctoring

As we dig into the second half of the spring semester, instructors may now be looking at final assessments for the end of the term. During this time, instructors have many different options when they plan out and assign assessments. In this blog post, we’ll be looking at some alternative options for more traditional proctored exams which instructors can incorporate into their courses. 

The purpose of this post isn’t to say that instructors cannot offer traditional quizzes or tests within their courses. Far from it, in fact. Instead, we are offering an alternative to help avoid over-use of quizzes and exams in line with Palloff and Pratt (2013) where the authors state that, “instructors shouldn’t completely avoid the use of tests and quizzes. These assessments can be appropriate but require instructors to be mindful about when and where they use them.” In this vein, below are several suggestions on how to still incorporate quizzes and exams within a course using certain formats or settings within Canvas that create impactful assessments without a reliance on proctoring.  

Alternatives to Proctoring Traditional Exams: Canvas Settings 

For quizzes and tests which contain multiple choice or other auto-graded questions in Canvas, there are several settings instructors can enable to help encourage academic integrity. First, within the settings of a Canvas Classic Quiz, instructors can set answers to be shuffled between quizzes so that each student sees the answer choices in a different order. Selecting Quiz due dates and setting a time limit on a quiz where students must complete the assessment within the given time are also settings which might be of interest. These options are all in the Classic Quiz settings within Canvas.  

Canvas Classic Quizzes Settings showing shuffle questions, time limit, and quiz attempt settings.

You can also create Classic Quiz question banks and then use question groups to pull questions from one or more question banks. With a question group, you can pull all questions from a bank or set a specific number of questions from the question bank to be randomly selected for the question group. Using a question group to randomize questions within a Canvas Quiz can help deter academic dishonesty.  

Another option in Canvas is to have multiple versions of the same quiz, similar to how you might have a test form A, B, and C, for a paper test in a face-to-face course. Use Canvas to set up multiple versions of an exam or quiz, put students into groups, and then assign each group a different version of the assessment. The directions here discuss assigning an individual student to a quiz; however, you can follow the same directions to assign a quiz to a student group instead.  

Alternatives to Proctoring Traditional Exams: Test Formatting 

Besides selecting specific quiz settings in Canvas which can help to discourage academic dishonesty, instructors can also adjust the format of a quiz or test. One option is to allow students to use open notes combined with a specific time limit while taking a quiz or test. Alternatively, the use of open notes can help prioritize question types such as short-answer or essay questions. These question types focus more on application and tend to encourage more honest and original answers from students than multiple-choice and other auto-graded question types. For example, you might have students conduct an analysis of a case study using key concepts introduced in class or explaining how to solve a specific equation. Often, asking students to explain something from their point of view or discuss how they would approach an example case study are questions that are harder to look up in notes or online.  

Another test format you might consider is to ask students to complete an oral exam. UWGB’s own Dr. Amy Kabrhel and Dr. James Kabrhel recently created a blog post discussing their use of oral exams in place of traditional exams for use in virtual classrooms and other remote learning modalities. 

Alternative Assessments Beyond Traditional Exams

For instructors who may wish to incorporate formative or summative assessments that do not follow a quiz or exam structure, we have a summary of a few alternative options. Popular suggestions for such assessments tend to promote group work, peer review, or other collaborative endeavors. Assessments incorporating such activities tend to foster higher order thinking in students and encourage metacognition, personal reflection on learning, and stimulate more active learning.  

The University of North Dakota Teaching Transformation and Development Academy (TTaDA)  and the Charlotte University Center for Teaching and Learning provide some concrete suggestions of specific types of skills-based assessments that transcend proctoring. Some highlights include portfolios where students select examples of their work over the duration of the course to revisit, analyze, and update to submit for a final assessment. This provides students with the opportunity to portray an increased understanding of course materials, as well as showcase specific pieces of work they found interesting or are proud of.  

Another option instead of assigning quizzes and tests is to allow students to create detailed “study guides” for a hypothetical quiz or test, or questions they believe should be used on a quiz or exam based off the materials covered in class. These activities allow students to show how well they understand the topics and concepts covered in class, while also providing instructors with informal feedback about what information students are identifying as important.  

A different suggestion for alternative assessments in STEM courses in particular came from UND TTaDA where they encourage the use of virtual labs. They highlight an open education resource (OER) created by Merlot University showcasing a collection of virtual labs focused on science, engineering, mathematics, and technology disciplines.  

A final tool instructors can use to look at potential alternative assessments is an interactive Reimagine Assessments resource developed by Emory University’s Center for Faculty Development and Excellence. This tool lets instructors see example activities for alternative assessments based on 4 different assessment goals: content mastery, skill development, analysis, and theory. 

Each of these examples have one common theme, and that is that assessments, either traditional quizzes and tests or alternative assessments, should be designed to not only assess a student’s comfort and mastery of specific knowledge covered within a course, but should also aim to help students develop and hone a variety of professional skills. These skills should both aid students within the classroom and also be applicable in the world beyond higher education. Such skills can include but are not limited to information management, project management, time management, individual and group oral presentation skills, collaboration skills, and the potential to practice various media production and editing skills.  

Assessment Wrap Up

The benefits of being very deliberate in the form and function of an assessment are twofold. First, utilizing different Canvas settings, quiz and test formats, or alternative assessment strategies decreases the dependence of instructors on proctoring. In recent years, proctoring software has become a more controversial topic within higher ed, and the ability to utilize in-person proctoring is equally complicated by various factors, the least of which was the recent COVID pandemic. The second benefit is that reassessing and being critical about when, how, and in what form to present formative and summative assessments can help encourage academic honesty amongst students by not only gauging the level of mastery students have reached throughout a course, but also helping students to develop a skill tool set they can use going forward in higher ed and in future careers. 

If you have any questions or ideas about quizzes, tests, or alternative assessments, please reach out to CATL and schedule a consultation.