CATL is often asked questions about how to approach assessments in the wake of easy access to generative artificial intelligence (GAI). We hope to crowd-source suggestions and examples from our own instructors so that we can build a repository of work from the UWGB community in Canvas. Please take our GAI Assignment Repository survey if you have any ideas or assignment samples that you are willing to contribute. We will collect results and share them once we have a critical mass. In the meantime, please feel free to use these resources from other institutions or professional organizations.
Deterring the Use of GAI
One of the most frequent concerns expressed by instructors is that students will simply use GAI to complete their assignments. It makes very good sense to type your own assignment prompt into Copilot or another GAI tool to see if it can complete the assessment – and modify the assignment if it can. Although these are not perfect strategies, multiple authors have suggested the following mitigation strategies:
- Be very clear with students about your GAI policy and talk with them about the reasons for it and for completing their work independently. Carleton College has an interesting site aimed at a student audience about GAI use and evolving understandings of academic integrity that you could use to frame a discussion with your class.
- Use shorter, more frequent assessments that build on each other to reduce the motivation to use GAI that can come with a small number of high-stakes/point assignments.
- Scaffold your assignments such that each one builds on another.
- Create assessments that involve integration of material from class (which GAI does not have access to) with other sources.
- Require some element of reflection on the learning experience or completing the assignment.
- Ask students to submit outlines, drafts, or save their document history in Word or Google Docs to show the evolution of a paper or project.
- Consider the use of oral presentations, including question and answer, as a method for demonstrating understanding.
- Employ in-class writing assignments such as Minute Papers for face-to-face courses.
The Office of Digital Learning at UN-Reno has created a more detailed document with strategies for re-designing assessments in the GAI era.
Teaching About the Use and Ethics of GAI
Some instructors are seeking strategies for teaching students about GAI and how to use it, as well as about related issues, such as the ethics of use. Instructors from the University of Central Florida collected more than 60 assignments related to GAI, including the teaching of prompt engineering. The New School has a shorter, more direct page of instructions for prompt creation. Co-Intelligence author Dr. Ethan Mollick and collaborator Dr. Lilach Mollick have created an extensive paper that outlines seven complex ways to use GAI in education, and they include sample prompts and a discussion of the potential risks of their ideas. Finally, as just one example of teaching about the ethics of AI use, consider this assignment designed, in part, to teach about cultural bias in GAI.
Creating Assessments that Make Use of GAI
Finally, there are instructors looking for creative assignments that use GAI as an intentional tool in an assessment to facilitate student learning. Numerous universities and organizations have assembled collections of such assignments, including the following:
- Discipline-specific Generative AI Teaching and Learning Resources (U of Del.)
- AI Pedagogy Project Assignments (metaLAB at Harvard)
- AI Assignment Library (U of North Dakota)
- 101 Creative Ideas to Use AI in Education: A Crowdsourced Collection
- Suggestions for AI-Based Assignments and Activities
- Incorporating AI in Teaching: Practical Examples for Busy Instructors
- Using Generative AI in Student Assignment
- UWM’s Active Teaching Lab Archive
Remember, we hope to create a collection of examples from UWGB instructors. Please complete our survey today to share your contribution with your colleagues!
