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AI-resistant Assessments

Taking Control of Generative AI

Generative AI presents a significant challenge for educators who have been catapulted into a paradigm shift in assessment practices. To keep apace with advances in generative AI, assessment redesign should include an increased emphasis on critical thinking, personal reflection, and the application of unique, context-specific knowledge that is more difficult for AI to replicate. It requires instructors to shift their focus from the product (summative evidence of learning) to the process — how students acquire and demonstrate new learning. Ask yourself:

How can this task/assignment be redeveloped to help my students to develop critical thinking and metacognitive processes?

Balancing the necessity of AI-proof assignments with fair and effective evaluation methods remains a complex and ongoing effort. Department policies and practices with regards to AI use should be clearly stated in course syllabi and reviewed on a regular basis.

AI-resistant Assessment Examples

In-class presentations

In-class presentations can be an effective way to limit AI use in educational settings for several reasons:

1. Authenticity and Accountability

  • Real-time Performance: Students must demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in real-time, which makes it harder to rely on AI-generated content.
  • Direct Assessment: Instructors can directly assess students’ grasp of the material through their presentation skills, ability to answer questions, and engagement with the audience.

2. Skill Development

  • Communication Skills: Presenting in class helps students develop verbal communication and public speaking skills, which are crucial for their future careers.
  • Creativity: Students can demonstrate creativity through digital slide creation and/or presentation formats.
  • Critical Thinking: Preparing for a presentation requires a deep understanding of the topic, promoting critical thinking and the ability to synthesize information.

3. Engagement and Interaction

  • Peer Learning: Students can learn from each other’s presentations, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
  • Interactive Learning: Presentations can include Q&A sessions, encouraging active participation and engagement from the entire class.

4. Evaluation of Understanding

  • Immediate Feedback: Teachers can provide immediate feedback, which is beneficial for students’ learning processes.
  • Holistic Assessment: Presentations allow for a more holistic assessment of a student’s abilities, including their confidence, clarity of speech, and ability to handle questions spontaneously.

5. Reduction of Plagiarism and AI Dependence

  • Originality: Since students need to present in person, it is more difficult for them to use AI to generate their work without understanding it.
  • Encouraging Learning: The requirement to present encourages students to truly learn and understand the material rather than relying on AI to complete assignments for them.

Implementing In-Class Presentations

To maximize the effectiveness of in-class presentations, educators can:

  1. Set Clear Guidelines: Outline the expectations and criteria for the presentations, ensuring students understand the importance of originality and personal effort.
  2. Provide Support: Offer resources and support for students to develop their presentation skills, such as tips on public speaking or guidance in structuring a presentation.
  3. Use Varied Formats: Incorporate different types of presentations (individual, group, multimedia) to cater to diverse learning styles and keep the process engaging.
  4. Incorporate Peer Assessment: Involve students in assessing each other’s presentations. Having critical friends encourages a deeper engagement with the material and fosters a supportive learning community (Swaffield, 2003).

In-class quizzes, tests and assignments

In-class quizzes, tests, and assignments are effective tools for limiting AI use in educational settings. Here’s how they contribute to maintaining academic integrity and promoting genuine learning:

1. Ensuring Authenticity

  • Controlled Environment: Conducting assessments in a supervised setting ensures that students complete the work themselves, without external assistance from AI tools.
  • Immediate Demonstration of Knowledge: Students are required to respond in real-time, reducing the opportunity to use AI for generating answers.

2. Accurate Assessment

  • Assessment for/as/of Learning: Instructors can directly assess students’ understanding and mastery of the material based on their in-class performance.
  • Holistic Understanding: In-class assessments provide a clearer picture of students’ abilities, including their critical thinking, problem-solving, and time management skills.

3. Skill Development

  • Time Management: Students learn to manage their time effectively during timed quizzes and tests, a valuable skill for academic and professional success.
  • Critical Thinking: In-class assessments can ask students to quickly retrieve and apply their knowledge to novel situations revealing their depth of understanding on a given topic.
  • Encouraging Study Habits: Knowing that quizzes and tests will be conducted in class motivates students to review material regularly and to ask clarifying questions.

4. Immediate Feedback and Continuous Learning

  • On-the-Spot Feedback: Formative assessment can provide students with immediate feedback which helps them to understand their mistakes and learn more effectively.
  • Continuous Improvement: Assessment for/as learning provides regular feedback to students and may help to prevent last-minute cramming.

Implementing In-Class Quizzes, Tests, and Assignments

To maximize the effectiveness of in-class assessments, consider the following strategies:

  1. Regular and Varied Assessments: Incorporate frequent quizzes and learning tasks to keep students actively engaged with the material.
  2. Diverse Question Types: Use a mix of multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions to assess different levels of understanding and skills (look HERE for more information on Bloom’s Taxonomy-Revised).
  3. Clear Expectations: Provide clear guidelines and expectations to ensure students understand the importance of originality and personal effort.
  4. Formative and Summative Assessments: Balance formative assessments (focused on learning and improvement) with summative assessments (focused on measuring learning outcomes).
  5. Balanced Workload: Ensure the frequency and difficulty of quizzes and assignments are balanced to avoid overwhelming students while maintaining academic rigor.
  6. Interactive Elements: Include elements like class discussions and peer reviews to further engage students and provide additional opportunities for authentic assessment.

Multi-modal project-based learning

Multi-modal project-based learning (PBL) is an educational approach that integrates various modes of learning and forms of expression into comprehensive, hands-on projects. This method can effectively limit AI use while fostering deeper engagement and understanding. Here’s how multi-modal PBL can achieve this:

1. Diverse Skill Development

  • Multimodal Literacies: Incorporating projects that include different modes (linguistic, aural, visual, spatial, gestural) makes it more difficult for students to use AI-generated content (see HERE for more information on multimodality and multimodal literacy).
  • Interdisciplinary Learning: Projects that span multiple subjects and skills encourage students to synthesize information from various sources, reducing the likelihood of AI completing the task accurately.

2. Authentic and Personalized Learning

  • Unique Projects: Each project can be tailored to individual or group interests, making it unique and personal. This individuality makes it challenging for AI to replicate the work.
  • Real-World Relevance: Projects often address real-world problems, requiring students to conduct original research, think critically, and apply their knowledge in practical ways.

3. Collaboration and Communication

  • Team Work: Many PBL tasks involve group work, where students must collaborate, discuss, and share responsibilities. AI cannot easily replicate these human interactions and dynamics.
  • Presentation Skills: Presenting projects to peers or a broader audience ensures students articulate their process and findings, demonstrating a deep understanding.

4. Process-Oriented Assessment

  • Documentation and Reflection: Students document their progress and reflect on their learning throughout the project. This continuous process emphasizes understanding and growth over time, which is difficult for AI to simulate authentically.
  • Formative Feedback: Regular check-ins and formative assessments allow teachers to monitor student progress and provide guidance, ensuring that students remain actively engaged and responsible for their work.

5. Engagement and Motivation

  • Student Choice: Allowing students to choose project topics and creative methods of expression increases intrinsic motivation and commitment to the task.
  • Hands-On Activities: Engaging in practical, hands-on tasks (e.g., building models, creating art, conducting experiments) requires skills and efforts beyond AI capabilities.

Implementing Multi-Modal Project-Based Learning

To effectively implement multi-modal PBL, educators can consider the following strategies:

  1. Design Diverse Projects: Create projects that require various forms of input and output, such as written reports, videos, presentations, models, and artwork.
  2. Interdisciplinary Approach: Integrate multiple subjects into a single project to encourage a broad range of skills and knowledge.
  3. Emphasize Process and Documentation: Require students to document their process, including planning, research, and iterations, and to reflect on their learning journey.
  4. Encourage Collaboration: Design projects that necessitate teamwork, fostering communication, and collaborative problem-solving.
  5. Provide Continuous Feedback: Conduct regular progress reviews and provide formative feedback to guide students and ensure ongoing engagement.

Benefits

  • Deep Learning: Multi-modal PBL encourages students to explore topics in depth and from multiple perspectives, leading to a richer understanding.
  • Creativity and Innovation: Students are motivated to think creatively and come up with innovative solutions to complex problems.
  • Real-World Skills: This approach develops a range of practical skills, including research, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication, all of which prepare students for future challenges.

Oral exams

Oral exams can be an effective way to limit AI use in academic settings while offering several additional benefits for both students and educators. Here’s how oral exams help achieve this:

1. Ensuring Authenticity

  • Direct Interaction: Oral exams require students to respond to questions in real-time, eliminating the possibility of relying on AI-generated content.
  • Immediate Responses: The need for on-the-spot answers ensures that students must understand the material rather than regurgitate pre-prepared responses.

2. Assessment of Understanding

  • Depth of Knowledge: Oral exams allow examiners to probe deeper into students’ understanding, asking follow-up questions that test their grasp of the subject matter.
  • Critical Thinking: Students must think critically and articulate their thoughts clearly, demonstrating a genuine comprehension of the topic.

3. Skill Development

  • Communication Skills: Oral exams help students develop their oral communication and public speaking skills, which are essential in many professional fields.
  • Confidence Building: Regular practice in oral exams can build students’ confidence in expressing their ideas and defending their viewpoints in group settings.

4. Interactive and Adaptive Assessment

  • Tailored Questions: Examiners can adapt questions based on students’ responses, allowing for a more personalized assessment.
  • Immediate Feedback: Students can receive immediate feedback on their performance, which can be more impactful than delayed written feedback.

Implementing Oral Exams

To effectively implement oral exams and limit AI use, educators can consider the following strategies:

  1. Clear Guidelines: Provide students with clear expectations and criteria for the oral response to ensure they understand what is required.
  2. Diverse Question Types: Use a mix of question types, including open-ended questions, scenario-based questions, and problem-solving questions to assess different aspects of understanding.
  3. Structured Format: Develop a structured format for the exam to ensure consistency and fairness in assessment.
  4. Practice Sessions: Encourage students to practice with somone to be better prepared and to reduce anxiety.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive Assessment: Oral exams provide a more holistic assessment of students’ abilities, including their knowledge, reasoning, and communication skills.
  • Engagement and Motivation: The interactive nature of oral exams can increase student engagement and motivation to learn.
  • Immediate Clarification: Examiners can clarify misunderstandings and provide instant guidance, enhancing the learning experience.

Revision history and proof of effort

Requiring students to provide revision history and proof of effort can effectively limit the use of AI in academic work. This approach emphasizes the importance of the process, encourages continuous engagement with the material, and helps instructors verify the authenticity of student work. Here’s how it works:

1. Tracking the Process

  • Documented Progress: Students must document each stage of their work, showing how their ideas and understanding have evolved.
  • Version Control: Using tools like Google Docs, Microsoft OneNote, or other version control systems allows instructors to see the sequence of edits and contributions, ensuring the work is original and developed over time.

2. Encouraging Genuine Effort

  • Process Over Product: By focusing on the process, students are encouraged to engage deeply with the material, making it less likely they will resort to AI shortcuts.
  • Reflective Practice: Students can be asked to reflect on their learning process, discussing what they found challenging, how they overcame difficulties, and what they learned from each stage of their work.

3. Assessment of Understanding

  • Detailed Feedback: Instructors can provide feedback at various stages of the project, helping students improve their work progressively and ensuring they understand the material.
  • Identifying Gaps: By reviewing the revision history, instructors can identify areas where students struggled or misunderstood concepts and provide targeted support.

4. Enhancing Skill Development

  • Research and Writing Skills: Documenting the research and writing process helps students develop essential academic skills including source evaluation, content organization, references and citations, and editing.
  • Time Management: Students learn to manage their time effectively by breaking down projects into manageable parts and adhering to deadlines for each stage.

Implementing Revision History and Proof of Effort

To effectively implement this strategy, educators can consider the following practices:

  1. Use of Technology: Require students to use collaborative tools (e.g., Google Docs, Microsoft OneNote) that automatically save revision histories.
  2. Regular Checkpoints: Establish regular checkpoints where students submit drafts or progress reports, allowing instructors to monitor their development and provide feedback.
  3. Reflection Papers: Have students complete a written reflection that describe their learning process, challenges faced, and strategies used to overcome them.
  4. Annotated Bibliographies: Require students to submit annotated bibliographies that document their research process and explain why each source was chosen.
  5. Peer Review: Incorporate peer review sessions where students provide feedback on each other’s work, further ensuring that the revision process is thorough and collaborative.

Benefits

  • Promotes Authentic Learning: Emphasizing the process helps ensure that students engage meaningfully with the material and develop a deeper understanding.
  • Reduces Plagiarism: Continuous documentation and revision history make it more difficult for students to submit AI-generated or plagiarized content.
  • Improves Quality of Work: Regular feedback and iterative revisions lead to higher-quality final submissions.
  • Develops Essential Skills: Students improve their research, writing, critical thinking, and time management skills through this approach.

Simulations and labs

Simulations and lab-based activities can effectively limit AI use in educational settings by emphasizing hands-on, experiential learning that requires direct student involvement. Here’s how these approaches can help:

1. Hands-On Learning

  • Active Participation: Simulations and lab activities require students to actively engage with the material, performing experiments or interacting with simulated environments in real-time, which AI cannot replicate.
  • Practical Skills: These activities develop practical skills and procedural knowledge, as students must manipulate equipment, collect data, and make observations firsthand.

2. Authentic Assessment

  • Real-Time Problem Solving: Students are required to solve problems and make decisions on the spot during simulations and labs, ensuring they understand the concepts and can apply them in practice.
  • Observable Actions: Instructors can directly observe students’ actions and processes, making it easier to assess their understanding and engagement authentically.

3. Collaborative Learning

  • Team Work: Many simulations and lab activities are performed in groups, fostering collaboration and communication skills. AI cannot participate in or replicate the dynamics of group interactions.
  • Peer Learning: Students can learn from each other through discussion and collaboration, enhancing their collective understanding and reinforcing individual accountability.

4. Skill Development

  • Critical Thinking: Students must analyze data, troubleshoot issues, and draw conclusions from their observations, which promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
  • Technical Competence: Handling lab equipment and interacting with simulation software develop technical skills that are valuable in many scientific and technical fields.

Implementing Simulations and Labs

To effectively implement simulations and labs and limit AI use, educators can consider the following strategies:

  1. Design Realistic Scenarios: Create simulations and lab activities that mimic real-world scenarios, requiring students to apply their knowledge in practical contexts.
  2. Use Diverse Tools: Incorporate a variety of tools and technologies, such as virtual labs, physical experiments, and interactive software, to provide a comprehensive learning experience.
  3. Incorporate Assessment: Design assessments that require students to demonstrate their process, such as lab reports, reflective journals, and oral presentations.
  4. Provide Guidance and Support: Offer clear instructions, guidance, and support throughout the activities to ensure students understand the expectations and can effectively engage with the tasks.
  5. Emphasize Process and Documentation: Require students to document their processes, including hypotheses, procedures, data collection, and analysis, to demonstrate their understanding and effort. These can be shared using multimodal formats (see above for more information about multimodal project-based learning).

Benefits

  • Enhanced Engagement: Hands-on activities are often more engaging and motivating for students, making learning more enjoyable and effective.
  • Deepened Understanding: Experiential learning helps students internalize concepts and understand their practical applications, leading to deeper and more lasting knowledge.
  • Authentic Skill Development: Students develop a range of practical and technical skills that are directly applicable to real-world situations.
  • Reduction of AI Reliance: The hands-on nature of simulations and labs ensures that students cannot rely on AI to complete their work, promoting genuine learning and effort.

Examples of Simulations and Labs

  • Science Experiments: Traditional lab experiments in biology, chemistry, or physics where students test hypotheses, collect data, and analyze results.
  • Virtual Labs: Online platforms that simulate lab environments, allowing students to conduct experiments virtually when physical labs are not available.
  • Business Simulations: Simulated business environments where students make strategic decisions and see the consequences of their actions.
  • Medical Simulations: Use of mannequins or virtual patients to practice medical procedures and diagnose conditions.
  • Engineering Projects: Hands-on projects where students design, build, and test prototypes or systems.
  • Educational Case Studies: Case study content generated from real-world examples encourages students to develop the kind of professional mindset required of an individual entrusted with the care and education of children and youth.

Video-based assignment submissions

Video-based assignment submissions can be an effective way to limit AI use while enhancing student engagement and learning. Here’s how this approach can be beneficial:

1. Ensuring Authenticity

  • Personal Presence: Video assignments require students to appear on camera to share their learning.
  • Voice and Body Language: Instructors can assess the student’s understanding and authenticity through their verbal explanations, tone of voice, and body language.
  • Real-Time Creation: The process of creating a video, including scripting, filming, and editing, requires active participation and effort from the student, which AI cannot easily replicate.

2. Skill Development

  • Communication Skills: Students develop oral communication and presentation skills by explaining their work verbally.
  • Technical Skills: Creating video content helps students learn and improve technical skills related to video production, editing, and multimedia use.

3. Creative Expression

  • Diverse Formats: Students can express their understanding creatively through various video formats such as demonstrations, tutorials, role-plays, and animations.
  • Engagement: The multimedia nature of video assignments can be more engaging for both students and instructors, making the learning experience more enjoyable.

4. Comprehensive Assessment

  • Detailed Explanations: Video assignments allow students to provide detailed explanations of their thought processes, methodologies, and conclusions, offering deeper insights into their understanding.
  • Visual Evidence: Students can include visual evidence of their work, such as screen recordings, practical demonstrations, and visual aids, which can be more informative than written text alone.

Implementing Video-Based Assignments

To effectively implement video-based assignments and limit AI use, educators can consider the following strategies:

  1. Clear Guidelines: Provide clear instructions on the expectations for video assignments, including length, content, and technical requirements.
  2. Rubrics and Criteria: Develop detailed rubrics that outline the criteria for assessment, such as clarity of explanation, quality of content, presentation skills, and technical execution.
  3. Flexibility in Format: Allow flexibility in the format and style of videos to encourage creativity and accommodate different learning styles and preferences.
  4. Technical Support: Offer resources and support to help students with the technical aspects of video production, including tutorials on using video editing software. There are many free video sharing plateforms available like YouTube, Vidyard, Wistia, and Vimeo.
  5. Examples and Templates: Provide examples of well-done video assignments and templates that students can use as a starting point for their projects.
  6. Staged Submissions: Incorporate checkpoints or stages in the assignment process, such as script submissions, rough cuts, and final edits, to ensure continuous engagement and progress.

Benefits

  • Authentic Assessment: Video assignments allow instructors to assess students’ understanding and skills in a more dynamic and authentic way.
  • Enhanced Engagement: The creative and multimedia aspects of video assignments can increase student motivation and interest in the subject matter.
  • Skill Development: Students develop a range of valuable skills, including communication, technical, and creative skills, that are applicable in many professional contexts.
  • Reduced Plagiarism and AI Use: The personalized nature of video submissions makes it challenging for students to rely on AI-generated content, promoting original work and genuine effort.

Examples of Video-Based Assignments

  • Presentations: Students create video presentations on a specific topic, demonstrating their understanding and ability to communicate effectively.
  • Demonstrations: Students demonstrate experiments, procedures, or techniques on video, showing their practical skills and application of knowledge.
  • Explainer Videos: Students produce explainer videos that break down complex concepts into understandable parts, teaching the material to others.
  • Reflective Journals: Students record video reflections on their learning experiences, discussing challenges, insights, and personal growth.
  • Role-Plays and Simulations: Students perform role-plays or simulations on video, practicing real-world scenarios and problem-solving.

Preloading assignments into ChatGPT

Preloading assignments into ChatGPT or similar AI tools to check for AI use can be an effective strategy to ensure academic integrity. This approach involves submitting student assignments into the AI system to identify content that may have been generated by the AI itself. Although no AI-detection tool or plagiarism checker is 100% accurate, a combination of these and the previously mentioned suggestions can help to safeguard academic integrity.

1. Identifying AI-Generated Content

  • Comparison Checks: By inputting student assignments into ChatGPT, educators can compare the content with outputs generated by the AI. If there are significant similarities, it may indicate the use of AI-generated content.
  • Pattern Recognition: AI tools can recognize patterns in writing that are typical of machine-generated text, such as specific phrasing, lack of personal voice, and unusual sentence structures.

2. Discouraging AI Misuse

  • Awareness and Education: Informing students that their work will be checked against AI-generated content can act as a deterrent against using AI for dishonest purposes.
  • Policy Reinforcement: This approach reinforces academic policies regarding the use of AI and underscores the importance of submitting original work. These should be readily available and included in course syllabi. Look HERE for the Student Academic Integrity Policy found in the Academic Calendar.

Implementing Preloading Assignments into ChatGPT

To effectively implement this strategy, consider the following steps:

  1. Clear Policies: Establish clear policies regarding the use of AI tools for assignments and communicate these to students.
  2. Transparency: Inform students that their work may be preloaded into AI and/or plagiarism checker tools (Turnitin) to check for AI-generated and plagiarized content.
  3. Data Management: Ensure that the data handling complies with privacy regulations and institutional guidelines, protecting students’ work and personal information.
  4. Consistent Use: Regularly use this method for a variety of assignments to maintain consistency and fairness.

Benefits

  • Academic Integrity: This method helps maintain high standards of academic integrity by ensuring that student submissions are genuinely their own work.
  • Deterrence: Knowing that assignments will be checked can discourage students from using AI to complete their work dishonestly.
  • Efficiency: AI tools can quickly process and analyze large volumes of text, making it easier for educators to identify potential AI-generated content.

Challenges and Considerations

  • False Positives: There is a risk of false positives, where legitimate student work is incorrectly flagged as AI-generated. It’s important to have a review process to verify results.
  • Privacy Concerns: Handling student data requires careful attention to privacy and data security to ensure compliance with regulations.
  • Student Trust: It’s important to maintain student trust by being transparent about the use of AI detection and plagiarism-checking methods and ensuring fair treatment.

References

Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. (n.d.). Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. Iowa State University. Retrieved July 16, 2024 from https://www.celt.iastate.edu/instructional-strategies/effective-teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy/

Donaghy, K. (2023, November 16). Multimodality and multimodal literacy: What are they and why are they important in ELT? Oxford University Press. https://teachingenglishwithoxford.oup.com/2023/11/16/multimodality-and-multimodal-literacy-elt/#:~:text=Multimodal%20literacy%20refers%20to%20the,curricula%20to%20include%20multimodal%20literacy.

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (July 16 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Swaffield, S. (2003). Critical friendship. inFORM, 3, 1-8. https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/networks/lfl/about/inform/PDFs/InForm_3.pdf