5 AI-Proof Assessment Ideas
Another day, another post about how Gen AI is disrupting online learning and higher education as a whole. By now, I’m sure you’ve heard and seen it all. And then, Open AI’s new browser, Atlas, decided to take this one step further beyond anything we’ve seen before.
Atlas can complete an entire online course by itself. All you need to do is give it course access, say “complete the assignment,” and ta da. It’s done. It is literally that easy. Here’s a screenshot from one of my courses as proof:
Well, that’s fun…
Atlas’ competitor, Perplexity’s Comet, can do the same thing, and some argue it can complete tasks even better. The fact is, we now have technology that can finish entire courses with zero barriers in its way. I know there will be new advancements aimed at blocking these actions from tools like Atlas and Comet. Universities will likely try to block IP addresses and implement other defenses, but that doesn’t really matter. The truth is that we now have a piece of technology that is about to flip higher education and learning in general on its head.
And to be clear, this is not an article accusing students of plagiarism. There are many, many students who also hate AI. They are sick of it just as much as you.
So, what can we do? We need to take back our learning experiences and use this moment as an opportunity to elevate our assessments and make them AI-proof. Create a kind of assessment that AI can’t replicate.
Here are 5 AI-proof assessments that you can try today:
Recorded Journals
When I taught in the MBA program for Southern New Hampshire University, there was a weekly activity that involved a recorded reflection. It reminded me of LiveJournal from back in the day. Students received prompts and recorded five-minute videos reflecting on their week. That video served as their assignment. As the instructor, I would watch and provide feedback on what they shared.
I’ve always included reflections and journal assignments in my courses. Written reflections are still useful, but AI is now capable of inventing “memories” and pretending to be the student. This kind of video-based assessment, though, offers students a chance to think back on the prior week and reflect on what they learned. By speaking aloud, you can hear their lines of thinking. It’s not only a great way to reinforce concepts, but also encourages students to consider how they’ll apply those concepts in their work or academic journey.
Teach-Back Sessions
One of my grad school professors swore by this technique. At the start of the course, she listed 20 topics on the board and told us that by the end of the semester, we would each teach the class about one. We scoffed at first, but sure enough, by the end, we all had 15 minutes to deliver a mini-lesson.
I rarely use the word “engaging” anymore because marketing has overused it in online learning. But this was truly engaging. Students not only had to learn the material but also figure out how to teach it effectively. Some mimicked their professors' styles, while others leaned into public speaking. This strategy allows for a lot of creativity and freedom. Let your students pick their topic and watch the class come to life.
Interviews and Reflections
In my opinion, we don’t do enough to connect the classroom to the real world. One consistent piece of feedback I’ve heard from my students at the University of Miami is how much they enjoyed speaking with industry professionals.
In my course Design of Formal Learning Environments, we cover the ADDIE process. What makes ADDIE unique is that instructional designers tend to adapt it in different ways. So instead of hearing only my perspective and reading the textbook, I have students go out and interview real instructional designers. They record the interviews, share them with their classmates, listen to each other’s recordings, and write down their takeaways.
It’s always a fun assignment. Students hear from IDs at organizations like the Denver Broncos, Netflix, Amazon, and Harvard. The instructional design community has been incredibly generous with their time. Don’t be surprised if you see me post soon asking if you’d like to be interviewed!
Community-Based Learning
Speaking of not doing enough to connect the classroom and the real-world, we can kick this up a notch with the help from our friend, Community-Based Learning (CBL). CBL is exactly how it sounds. It’s a teaching and learning strategy centered around making an impact in the students’ communities. They can identify a local need and can truly make a difference. Mount Holyoke College and Brown University both come to mind as examples who not only practice CBL, but even intentionally incorporate this into their designs.
Critiquing AI
You’ve probably heard of this one by now, but it’s a great activity! If students are showing concern around AI, have them critique the results of using AI. I did this with my instructional design students after many of them had questions around will AI take their jobs. We went through different kinds of results from drafting learning objectives, to creativity around assessments, to generated content. You could tell that once they went through the results, their stressed levels went down. AI still isn’t anywhere close to perfect, but reading the news online will convince you otherwise.
A few honorable mentions you could try:
Presentations
Prototypes and creation
Group-based work with peer evaluations
Overall folks, those are a few ideas that you can try today. What do you think? Are there any ideas you would include?
P.S. With AI becoming increasingly present in higher education, I’ve been making it a point to attend more webinars that focus on teaching and learning in the age of AI. There’s plenty of excitement, of course, but also some real and legitimate concerns.
IDEAS at University of Massachusetts Amherst has been hosting several excellent webinars recently on AI and education. Their next one, scheduled for November 19th at 2 PM EST, is definitely worth registering for. You can sign up for free with this link.
