Global Assignment Trends

A good assessment strategy will include generative AI guidelines that are clear about when students can and can’t use conversational agents like ChatGPT. Do not assume that you and your students share the same expectations and norms.

Showing students how to document their interactions with generative AI can alleviate your concerns about academic integrity while also providing a valuable workplace skill. Make sure that they know how you would like them to cite AI-derived content. Ask them to keep notes on the intersection of their ideas and conversational output. Consider requiring chat logs be submitted as a process document. 

Providing a template for acknowledging the use of conversational agents in their assignments will help students know what you are looking for. Western Michigan’s “AI in the Syllabus” resource provides an example. 

AI Acknowledgement: For every assignment submission, you will include a 150-300 word acknowledgment. Your acknowledgement should include, 1. The identification of the tool(s) you used, 2. An explanation of why you decided to use the tool(s), 3. A description of how you used the tool(s) to manage assignment requirements, and 4. A reflection on your experience using the tool, exploring what worked or didn’t, and acknowledging limitations of the tool for this assignment, potential biases, etc. If you opt not to use AI tools, when not required, please use the “AI Acknowledgement” to highlight your non-AI approach and/or your reasons for deciding not to use certain tools.

While there is a growing consensus that it is a dead end to “out-prompt” ChatGPT in assignment design, changing some assignment formats to emphasize oral communication may be a way to gauge student learning. There are several popular assignment formats already in use that could be adapted for your class, including:

Verbal presentation: instead of asking students to write a report on a topic, consider asking them to present findings to the class and incorporate a substantive Q&A section. This will require some preparation on the instructor’s end to be sure that relevant and challenging questions are posed to the student. However, it may also help your students with real-world environments that are high-stakes and time-bound, such as interviews or final internship presentations.  

Required office hours visit: talk about each student’s ideas with them one-on-one as part of their writing process. Have them explain what their argument is, defend their methodological choices, and explain how they will find and use relevant evidence to support their argument. Take notes on these visits so that you remember what was discussed when you see their written work. 

In-class group meetings: assign a group project that involves in-class meetings in which individual students take leadership roles. Then, circulate around the small groups during class time and sit in on as many of these meetings as you can. Assess each student on how well they facilitate the meeting. This should be done in tandem with a written assignment in which students and their groupmates note their own assessment of the meeting’s effectiveness.

Consider revisiting your pre-ChatGPT rubrics to align your assessment criteria more closely with what you see as an assignment’s most creative outcomes. For instance, instead of placing a heavy weight upon an annotated bibliography, challenge students to identify gaps in current literature and to propose their own solutions. Ask them what their research question is and why they chose their methodology to explore that question. They should be able to reflect both on what is there and what is not there in current literature. Summary and description of current literature may be aided by ChatGPT, but students should see this as merely the beginning.