Revolutionizing Assessment Practices: The Role of ChatGPT

Published On Fri May 12 2023
Revolutionizing Assessment Practices: The Role of ChatGPT

How ChatGPT Can Help Disrupt Assessment Overload

Recent developments in generative AI, such as ChatGPT, offer opportunities for much-needed reforms in assessment practices. However, these reforms need careful consideration and principled implementation, especially with an already hard-pressed sector.

One of the pressing issues in higher education is assessment overload, which leads to too many assessments and limited opportunities for students to revise their work iteratively. Modularized higher education has inadvertently led to an assessment arms race in which academics compete for student attention using grades as both carrot and stick. This results in students jumping through hoops rather than achieving sustainable learning. If something is not assessed, students won’t do the work at all. This mindset, along with end-of-semester bottlenecks, where students juggle multiple deadlines, leads to rushed work or encourages students to take shortcuts through copying, plagiarism, or outsourcing.

A reduction in the quantity of assessment is necessary to support trust in students as individuals who want to produce original work. Students can be co-opted as partners in designing their assessment tasks, so they can create something meaningful to them. A strategic reduction in the quantity of assessment would also allow for a refocusing of assessment priorities on deep understanding more than just performance. This approach carries the potential to enhance feedback processes.

Staged, process-oriented assessments could involve students trying out various prompts for ChatGPT. They could evaluate and build on its outputs, detect AI hallucinations and inaccuracies, and relate content to other modules or key readings. Personalization to real-life events in regional or national contexts would also be possible. These processes might enable students to evidence how they have added value by curating and adding to AI-generated content.

Acknowledging AI inputs to student work is expected but not in so much detail that audit trails become overwhelming for lecturers. Assessing process as well as product could be valuable but time-consuming for lecturers, hence the need to reduce the overall assessment burden.

Digital oral assessments are often more appealing to students than conventional written assignments. Oral forms of digital assessment, such as video presentations, podcasts, or vlogs, can be engaging, personalized, and authentic in preparing for the world of work. These forms of assessment also engender increased student accountability, often leading to more worthwhile learning outcomes.

A lifelong learning imperative for lecturers and students is productively working with generative AI in constructive, responsible, and ethical ways. Educational specialists have been recommending assessment reform for decades, but inertia, workloads, and conservatism have been perennial barriers. With ChatGPT and AI, assessment in the generative era is more challenging and time-consuming for staff. To remedy this, reducing the quantity and length of assessments would be an excellent starting point.

In conclusion, recent advancements in generative AI, such as ChatGPT, offer a new path towards assessment reform. A reduction in assessment quantity and the implementation of digital oral assessments could alleviate some of the burdens of assessment overload. At the same time, AI could enable new forms of feedback, allowing students and lecturers to learn and work together constructively, ethically, and responsibly.