AI assessment scale helping students in ed psych class
Stephanie Spong, Educational Psychology 630
What prompted your use of AI for this class/research project? The students in the course asked me to use the AI Assessment Scale (Perkins, et al., 2024) to provide concrete guidance on AI use for all assignments. This gave me the opportunity to carefully think through what actual work and learning I expected in each assignment.
Describe the work you are doing with AI related to your class, including the tools you use. At the beginning of the semester, I engaged students in a conversation about how they thought we should treat AI in the class. I made it clear that I was most interested in their ideas and original work, but I could understand how AI might be useful for refining drafts or untangling your ideas. In response to our conversation and students’ feedback, I used the AI Assessment Scale to provide specific AI-related guidance to all assignments in the course. Students had clear directions for each assignment about whether or not AI could be used, how, and what their responsibilities were for the assignment.
How did the use of AI impact the outcome? For one of my assignments, a motivational syllabus and course schedule, I think the ability to use AI made it much easier for students to create a cohesive draft. For other assignments, like short reflections, I think not using AI helped students focus on their own ideas and develop their sense of teaching identity.
How did students involved react to the use of AI? Students asked for this approach and were appreciative of the efforts. After I produced all the assignment guidance we also discussed my rationale in class and students were able to ask questions for clarification.
What role (if any) do your concerns about the consequences of AI (environmental, social, academic, others) play in your work with AI? I have a lot of concerns about unproductive cognitive offloading for students, especially novice students in a given field or for new skills.
What surprised you about your work to integrate more AI? I was surprised that students wanted this level of detail and oversight.
Do you have advice for other faculty trying your idea? If you realize that you can’t realistically evaluate whether or not students are gaining the skills and knowledge they need to in your course, don’t be afraid to make a pivot and redesign an assignment or two.
Would you like to share an AI resource or information you have found especially useful for academics? Yes. The Center for Teaching and Learning’s AI Assessment Guide.
Stephanie Spong is the Senior Operations Manager at the UNM Center for Teaching and Learning and an affiliated faculty member in Organizational, Information, and Learning Sciences.