GenAI & assessment at course level

 

1. Is the final grade (partly) determined by written assignments that students complete without supervision?

	No credits (EC) are awarded based on grades for assignments that students complete without supervision. There is very little risk that students may pass the course through unauthorized use of GenAI; there is no need to answer the other questions.
	Yes, the final grade is determined by one or more assignments that students complete without supervision. Continue with the other questions.

2. What percentage of the final grade is determined by unsupervised assignments?

	The final grade is primarily determined by other forms of assessment. For instance: an on-site examination, a practical test or an oral examination.
	The final grade is determined (almost) exclusively by unsupervised assignments.

3. Do the assignments enable the teacher to monitor the student’s progress towards the final product?

	During the course, the progress of students is monitored. For instance: students hand in drafts for (peer) feedback, they discuss their approach with the teacher, they complete part of the work on campus (in a tutorial), or they submit an (oral) report of the work process.
	The entire or a large part of the work process occurs beyond the teacher’s supervision.

4. Do the assignments allow students to pass without course-specific knowledge or skills?

	The assignments require a course-specific level of depth and rely less on publicly available knowledge. The assignments are specifically tailored in content, format and/or method to what has been learned in the course and during classes. (NB: GenAI is becoming better at very specific assignments, with appropriate prompting.)
	Students can make their own choices regarding content (theme), form and/or method, using publicly available knowledge.

5. Run the assignments through GenAI and refine the instructions with prompting as a student might do. Evaluate the output: can it lead to a sufficient result, with or without minor changes?

	The output is of little or no use, or would not lead to a pass in its current form. The student would need to refine the prompts significantly and use additional course-specific knowledge and/or skills.
	The output would lead to a passing result with no changes, or it could lead to a passing result with minimal changes or refined prompts.

6. Is it specified for the course how students can responsibly use GenAI?

	Students know whether/how they can responsibly use GenAI in the course. The teacher explicitly discusses the implications of GenAI use in assignments.
	It is not clearly described how students can use GenAI, or the use is explicitly prohibited (although this cannot be easily enforced).

The current detection tools are not reliable, since they cannot accurately predict whether a text is (partly) written by GenAI or by a human. Therefore, it is better not to use them.

Overall, non-supervised (written) assignments are prone to the misuse of GenAI. Click here for more information. Evaluate the learning objectives and consider whether other forms of assessment might be possible. Can the weight of written assignments be reduced in favour of other types of assessment? Click here for inspiration.

Below, find some suggestions on how to avoid unauthorised GenAI use in assessment:

• Monitor the progress of your students towards the final product (formative assessment). For instance: students submit sketches or drafts, meet with you to discuss their approach, document their work process or complete (part of) the work on site. Make sure your outline is feasible within the allocated hours for the course.
• Have students complete assignments or exams on location, especially for lower-level cognitive skills (e.g. memorisation, comprehension and application). This approach can also work well if you want to assess fundamental academic writing skills (e.g. summarising and paraphrasing). However, it is less suitable for assessing higher-level cognitive skills (e.g. analysing, evaluating and creating). Bear in mind that there is a shortage of exam venues. Discuss this with your programme coordinator.
• Use oral reviews – if this is feasible in terms of time and staff. Oral assessments can take place online or offline, but always in real-time. There are different types of oral assessments: oral examination, explaining a written assignment orally (all students or a random sample), presentations to all students (e.g. a pitch), poster presentations, group discussions, debates, role plays, simulations/demonstrations (e.g. patient-doctor interaction, a negotiation simulation, advocacy competition, demonstrations of companies or codes), question-and-answer sessions by students, interviews.
• Use assignments that require creativity and originality (such as blogs, vlogs, video essays, music videos, poetry, infographics, animations, podcasts, portfolios, website design). Check whether the skills you assess are part of the curriculum in your course or elsewhere in the programme. This way, you ensure that students are not assessed on skills that are not part of the learning outcomes (e.g. coding, graphic design or video editing).

When using unsupervised assignments, make sure that the final grade is also based on forms of assessment with supervision and without access to GenAI. This way, you make sure that students really achieved the learning outcomes.

When using unsupervised assignments, make sure the assignments are difficult to complete with the help of GenAI. For instance: ask students to integrate (personal) examples, case studies, theories or research that is course specific.

Help your students to understand plagiarism and fraud and to evaluate GenAI output. Discuss the implications of using GenAI in assignments and explain why it is valuable for your students to do their own research. In doing so, you could draw on their motivation. For instance: explain the value of the assignment you give them. What are the learning outcomes? How will this help your students in the long term? What are the benefits if your students do this without the help of GenAI?

Provide clear guidelines for the use of GenAI in your course or assignment. This way, your students will know whether and how they can responsibly use GenAI.