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10 Guidelines for Assessment Practice in a GenAI Environment
This post was updated for links and terminology in October 2023. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools, such as but not limited to ChatGPT, are increasingly available with quickly advancing capabilities. Proper and ethical use is important for transparent and valid assessment. The following are 10 general guidelines for educators. To prepare Learn about relevant, new GenAI technologies and their applications in contexts of interest. Discuss approaches and emerging practices with disciplinary colleagues. Design assessment to meet course learning outcomes in ways that include acceptable uses of GenAI tools and/or reduces the likelihood of unacceptable uses. During the course Explain how students should and should not complete their assessments and…
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Will you allow ChatGPT? Considerations.
Many instructors are surprised by the capabilities of a new artificial intelligence text generator – ChatGPT – that was released in November, 2022. Try it out . Many are asking what the right thing to do is in terms of allowing or disallowing its use. In the short-term, it is reasonable to be contemplating whether to “ban” use of ChatGPT for course assessments. In the long-term, these tools will become even better and more pervasive and our assessment practices will surely need to change. In fact, opportunities to incorporate this tool and those like them are set to inspire all kinds of exciting changes in higher education and the world…
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ChatGPT and Academic Misconduct Regulations
What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is an generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) text generator that has been trained on data sets of mind-boggling size. It produces apparently “original” and coherent text responses in what is referred to as natural language. Tools of this kind have been in use in a range of sectors and have been on the radar of writing, technology, and academic integrity experts for at least two years. The ChatGPT functionality and its open availability have leapt ahead in public awareness and reaction since November 30, 2022. If you haven’t yet heard about ChatGPT, to find out more and to try it, go here. Experiment with the tool, including putting…
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Serious (about) Academic Misconduct? A lesson plan
Students encounter mixed messages when it comes to the seriousness of different forms of academic misconduct. As instructors, we may be assuming that our colleagues teach about and respond to academic misconduct issues in a similar way to ourselves, when very often, they do not. This post provides a lesson plan (using the “BOPPPS” model) for helping students see what the most serious mistakes would be in your course and why. Lesson Plan for Clarifying Expecations B is for “Bridge-in” What the instructor does What the students do Notes, Materials, Tips Introduce topic (2 – 5 min) Listen, reflect Ideas: tell a story of confusion over expectations you…
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Assessment Design and Academic Misconduct
First, the not-so-good news There is no such thing as a “cheat-proof” assessment. Now, for the good news Instructors can reduce the likelihood of academic misconduct through assessment design and the context for assessment. Such designs and contexts are those that help students to see the value of the learning, hold positive expectations, and regard academic integrity as the norm. We can categorize these in terms of actions to take related to assessment method, nature of the restrictions or conditions set for completing the assessment, and context for the learning itself. The following table groups strategies and what we might expect students to say (in italics) about the…
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Syllabus Links to Academic Misconduct Regulations: Necessary but not Sufficient
The syllabus describes the course, outlines the requirements, and sets the expectations. Important expectations relate to academic integrity, and ensuring academic misconduct is avoided. Updated Template at USask The University’s syllabus template has recently updated some of the standard information related to academic integrity, templates, available here. See the sections on academic integrity for language related to acceptable and unacceptable use of Generative AI that instructors can adapt as per their rules and expectations. Students will see links to the Governance Office site where academic integrity and its value are articulated, links to supports and skill building programs and resources available through the Library, and links to the academic misconduct…
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Using Case Studies to Teach about Academic Integrity
It is a common and effective practice to contexualize academic integrity for students using clear and relevant cases that bring home the relevance and applicability of these principles in and beyond the classroom. Cases from Current Events and/or Professional Practice Make the connections of the case to learning and assessment explicit, otherwise students may not see how the same principles and concerns apply to their own conduct as students. Some guiding questions for selecting or developing a good case: What forms of academic and professional misconduct happen in your field? What would happen as a result? What are some reasons this occurs? What are the ways professionals overcome these issues?…
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Using Oral Assessments to Collect Evidence of Learning
Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-wearing-blue-top-beside-table-1181712/ Summary: Boost learning engagement with oral assessments! Discover how this dynamic approach can provide richer evidence of student understanding and mastery. Date of publishing: March 30, 2021 Oral assessments can serve as a great method to collect another type of evidence of student learning. It typically consists of a time-limited interview with a student to verbally confirm to what degree they’ve met one or more course outcomes through a series of questions and prompts to guide the conversation. Collecting assessment evidence this way can be especially helpful while teaching remotely. Please review this video to learn more about this assessment strategy. Additional Resources…
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Contract Cheating is Riskier than Students Think
“Contract cheating occurs when a student procures a third party (who knows about and benefits from the transaction) to produce academic work (that is usually, but not always assessable work) that the student then submits to an educational institution as if it were their own” (Ellis, Zucker & Randall (2018) p. 1). Academic misconduct of any kind is a risk for students. Use of third–party sites for copying or outsourcing their work will likely be understood as academic misconduct for the most part by students. Interactions can start out as access to learning resources or tutoring help and become group-sourcing of answers and become outright collusion. Some sites even reward students for…
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Instructor Strategies to Mitigate Contract Cheating
“Contract cheating occurs when a student procures a third party (who knows about and benefits from the transaction) to produce academic work (that is usually, but not always assessable work) that the student then submits to an educational institution as if it were their own” (Ellis, Zucker & Randall (2018) p. 1). There is no silver bullet solution for the problem of contract cheating. It is multi-faceted, and calls for multiple mitigation strategies. Assessment design No assessment is “cheat-proof” but assessment design is widely regarded as an important strategy. What makes sense or is possible in one course, may not fit for another course. Instructors considering assessment options can: Find…