This article highlights three elements that need consideration in our assessment design to mitigate academic misconduct:
- Opportunity – making engaging in academic misconduct more challenging and making it easier to detect
- Rationalisation – ensuring that students understand the importance of academic integrity.
- Pressure – students will face many pressures, academic, cultural/social, personal, which can cause behaviours which can lead to academic misconduct.
Countering academic misconduct requires this holistic approach. It will be important to set out the University guidance with your students and have conversations on the use of AI in your discipline, as well as for the assessment itself. Taking a course-based approach to our assessment, by making connections to other assessments, and ensuring consideration is given to the ‘time on task’ required for the assessment will reduce the pressure that can drive students into poor academic practice. It is also important to be inclusive and provide flexibility and alternative assessment approaches.
Expectations for academic integrity must be clearly communicated to students. With the rapid development in AI tools what is considered appropriate and inappropriate use must be clearly communicated to students. This is framed by the Coventry University Group position on the use of AI tools. This needs to be supported by helping students develop their AI literacy [see below].
How assessment tasks are designed can help reduce the opportunities for academic misconduct using AI tools. Designing tasks that are authentic to your discipline, encouraging application, personalised, live, or that encourage reflection and focus on the learning process rather than the product can help reduce opportunity. In addition, it is important that assessments are regularly refreshed, so where authentic assessments are used (via case studies, for example), the case studies should be updated for each iteration.
Authentic assessment
Assessments that require students to demonstrate professional skills and attitudes as well as just knowledge. For example, enquiry-based activities in which students are required to present proposed solutions, with justifications.
Assessments that provide a level of specificity, such as being based on contexts that are very topical and local will make it more difficult for AI tools to generate responses. Or where primary sources are combined and compared in novel, trans-historic, or trans-disciplinary ways.
Use of a detailed rubric, which sets out clear expectations for the assessment including reference to content covered in sessions, will make this localisation explicit to the students.
Personalise the assessment
Asking students to provide a short reflection outlining their approach and reasoning to an assessment for example.
- Portfolio approaches, requiring students to select a range of evidence can also create a personalised assessment. Consideration will need to be given to the manageability of such assessments based on cohort sizes.
- Making drafts or plans as part of the assessment will add personalisation, provide formative opportunities for the students and provide insight on students’ capabilities and progression. This approach can also be used to evidence process (see below).
Where appropriate allow students to submit in their own chosen mode. For example, submitting a podcast or narrated presentation instead of a written submission.
Focus on the learning process
Focusing on the end-product, such as an essay or presentation, may not easily evidence all the learning, particularly skills and capabilities. The assessment could require or focus on evidence of the learning process, asking for plans, storyboards or reflections /annotated documents on the process emphasising more the skills and capabilities developed through the assessment.
Making connections between assessments can also help reduce opportunity for academic integrity and highlight process. For example, asking students to explain how they have used feedback from previous assessments will enhance the personalised nature of these tasks.
Live assessments
Live assessments provide an opportunity to interact with and test students understanding (e.g., viva, presentations).