Generative ai tools have the potential to dramatically transform the way students approach their tasks. While ai can assist in a variety of learning tasks, it presents challenges for educators, especially when students can use it to complete tasks with minimal original input. It is therefore critical for educators to design assessments that are not easily solved by generative ai tools and encourage higher-level thinking skills, such as those represented by Bloom’s taxonomy.
As instructors work to revise assessments to be resilient to generation by ai tools with little student input, they should consider the following principles:
- Incorporate personal experiences and local content into assignments.
- Ask students to present multimodal results
- Evaluate developmental benchmarks for tasks and transition assignments higher up in Bloom's Taxonomy
- Consider oral and real-time tasks
Let's look at each one in more depth.
<h2 id="4-tips-for-designing-ai-resistant-assessments-3″>4 Tips for Designing ai-Resilient Assessments
1. Create assignments that ask students to personalize their work, based on local context and/or personal experiences.Both are issues that generative ai tools often struggle with, particularly in tasks that require students to apply knowledge in unique ways or in a nuanced context based on personal experiences or local realities.
To redesign this and make it ai-resistant, in a history assignment, for example, instead of asking students to write a generic essay about World War II, instructors might ask them to research the impact of World War II on their local community or a specific group of people in their region. This could involve going to local archives, interviewing community elders, or researching local newspapers.
These tasks require students to gather specific information that is not available to most ai tools. This can make students more engaged as they consider the impact on their families and relatives rather than just looking at the bigger picture.
2. Consider multimodal assessments that require students to use various forms of media to demonstrate their understanding.By incorporating multiple modes of expression, instructors can ensure that students engage with content on deeper levels while minimizing the use of ai-generated responses, which are often text-based.
Currently, most generative ai tools struggle to combine text and graphics effectively. For a creative writing unit, students might be asked to develop a story that includes a traditional writing assignment that explores a particular theme or character development. Ask them to include visual representations of key scenes or characters from their story, encouraging them to think about how images enhance the narrative.
A further step could be to ask students to record themselves reading their story aloud. Then, ask them to explain why they used the tone, pace, and inflections they did.
3. Consider process-oriented assessments that focus on assessing students at multiple stages of their work rather than just the final product. These benchmarks in the assessment process are helpful for students to reduce the risk of failure on high-stakes tasks by creating checkpoints to ensure that students are on track for success. This design encourages greater engagement and understanding as students are assessed on their ability to review, reflect, and grow through the learning process. ai tools can help produce end results, but they cannot replicate a student’s iterative thinking process.
For example, for a research project on the American Revolution, the instructor might break the assignment into several smaller steps. First, ask students to submit a proposal that describes the chosen aspect of the revolution and the planned sources. Next, ask for a bibliography of the planned sources, including a summary of the sources and how each will be used in the paper. Next, evaluate an outline, a first draft, and a final draft. If appropriate, an instructor might ask the student to provide information about why they made the changes they decided to make between drafts. These processes highlight students’ critical thinking skills and make it difficult to rely exclusively on generative ai tools.
4. Real-time assessments, such as live presentations, discussions, or interactive in-class activities, provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and critical thinking in the moment.These strategies are ai-resistant because students must actively interact with the material in real time, displaying their spontaneous thinking and problem-solving skills.
In a public speaking unit, students might give speeches based on prompts related to texts studied in class. For example, they might be asked to argue which character in The Great Gatsby is primarily responsible for Gatsby’s downfall, and provides evidence from the text to support his stance. This real-time assessment challenges students to think quickly, formulate a coherent argument, and articulate their thoughts clearly—skills that are not easy to replicate with most generative ai tools.
A corollary to real-time assessment would be the administration of oral exams, either uniformly or randomly, that allow instructors to assess students’ presentation skills as well as course content. These exams could also be administered using videos recorded by the students themselves. A random assignment could consist of asking each student to respond orally to one or more quizzes during the course. This would not require a major change to assessments, but would provide a potential safeguard for the use of generative ai.
If performance on the oral exam was significantly different than on the written assignment, it may be appropriate to discuss this with the student. Self-recorded videos can be implemented in any course format, including asynchronous ones.
One last reminder:Students should have clear guidelines for each assignment on whether and how they can use generative ai tools.
Ultimately, designing ai-resistant assessments requires thoughtful strategies that promote critical thinking, creativity, and deep engagement. While not all of these suggestions will work in every academic area, the approaches outlined above ensure academic integrity and enhance student learning by prompting students to think critically, reflect deeply, and express their ideas in multiple formats.
