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8 Smarter Assessment Strategies for the Age of Generative AI



Let’s face it, higher education is changing fast. Tools like TeachShare, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and others from the generative AI world are no longer just cool novelties. They’re now reshaping how students engage with assignments, how faculty assess learning, and how academic integrity is defined. Sure, AI can help students brainstorm ideas or write cleaner sentences, but it also raises questions: Is this student’s work truly their own? Are our traditional assessments still doing the job or are students' just using AI to complete these assignments? These are difficult questions but rather than panicking, it’s time to rethink how we design assessments, not just to reduce misconduct, but to deepen engagement, reflect real learning, and embrace change thoughtfully. Based on research and practical recommendations, here are eight faculty-tested strategies that can help.


1. Use Staged or Scaffolded Assessments

Breaking down a big project into smaller, interrelated tasks over the course of a semester helps track progress and reduce the risk of plagiarism or AI overuse. These are sometimes called “nested” or “progressive” assessments.


Why it works:

  • It’s harder to outsource or AI-generate multiple steps that require feedback and reflection.

  • Students develop time management and revision skills.

  • Faculty get checkpoints to monitor learning over time.


Example:

Capstone Project Progression

  • Week 3: Topic proposal with annotated sources

  • Week 6: Draft analysis with peer feedback

  • Week 10: Final product plus a reflective commentary on changes made


TeachShare Tip: If using TeachShare to create your resources, you can include the Scaffolding Boost to break the assignment into different steps!


2. Emphasize The Learning Process Over Final Product

Instead of only grading the essay or presentation at the end, assess the journey. Ask students to show their thinking, planning, and decision-making throughout.


How it helps:

  • It promotes metacognitive skills like self-reflection and revision.

  • It discourages AI misuse because it’s harder to fake a process than a product.


Ideas to try:

  • Require Process Notebooks in Design or Lab-Based Courses: Have students document their thinking, experimentation, and iteration across a project timeline.

    • Use TeachShare: Search for “process notebook templates” or create your own using the Creator Tool, complete with check-in prompts, reflection questions, and progress rubrics you can customize for your subject.

  • Use Learning Journals or Weekly Voice Notes to Track Development

    Whether written or recorded, these help students reflect on what they’re learning and how they're learning it.

    • Use TeachShare: Access peer-shared journal prompts organized by week or topic.

    • Use the TeachShare Toolbox to generate your own written prompts aligned to learning outcomes.

  • Ask for Draft Reflections Where Students Explain Changes: Encourage students to attach a short note or audio recording to each new draft, explaining what they revised and why.

    • Use TeachShare: Browse editable “revision reflection” prompts from other teachers or build your own task using the Creator Tool, which can suggest prompt language and rubric criteria based on your discipline.


3. Incorporate Oral or Interview-Based Components

Oral assessments let you hear student thinking in real time. AI tools struggle with spontaneous, nuanced conversation, especially when the questions aren’t predictable.


When to use:

  • For final checks on understanding

  • In project-based courses where application matters

  • In performance or skills-based disciplines


Formats that work:

  • Scenario-based oral quizzes

  • Paired interviews or peer-led questioning

  • Role-plays simulating workplace or field-specific tasks


  • Generate scenario prompts based on your subject area and skill level

  • Add rubric criteria like clarity, depth of reasoning, or use of evidence

  • Customize roles and provide question banks for peer interviews or simulations


4. Add Reflection and Evaluative Judgment

Asking students to critique, evaluate, or reflect engages higher-order thinking that’s much harder for AI to fake or replicate meaningfully.


Try this:

  • Peer Review with Structured Reflection: Ask students to assess a peer’s draft and then reflect: “What feedback did you give, and how would you apply it to your own work?”

    • Use TeachShare to find peer review templates with built-in reflection prompts and scoring rubrics.

    • TeachShare's Toolbox includes a survey creator that allow you to create forms aligned to your course goals.

  • Evaluate a Flawed Example and Justify Improvements: Provide a sample that has deliberate weaknesses and ask students to critique it and explain how they’d improve it.

    • Use the TeachShare Creator Tool to auto-generate rubric criteria and reflection questions tailored to the task.

  • Include Reflection on Learning and Future Applications: Ask students to articulate what they learned from a project and how they’d approach similar tasks in the future.

    • Browse TeachShare for ready-made reflection activities or weekly learning journals.

    • Use the TeachShare Creator to create reflection prompts with alignment to your learning outcomes or discipline standards.


5. Make It Real: Design Authentic, Context-Specific Tasks

Move beyond textbook-style questions. Real-world scenarios or hyper-local cases make assignments more relevant and much harder for AI to fake effectively.


Examples:

  • Examples:

    • Analyze a Case Based on Local Community Data: Ground assignments in current issues or datasets that are specific to your institution’s region or context.

      • Use TeachShare’s Creator Tool to input location, theme, and subject area, the AI embedded in the platform will help you generate case scenarios tied to real-world data.

      • Search the TeachShare Marketplace for shared “local case study” examples with community-focused prompts and rubrics.

    • Write a Policy Brief for a Real Stakeholder Audience: Ask students to write for a real-world role or decision-maker, such as a city planner, school board, or nonprofit organization.

    • Create a Presentation That Solves a Current Event-Related Problem Using Course Concepts: Ask students to respond to a contemporary challenge using what they’ve learned.

      • Use the Creator Tool to scaffold steps, research, outline, and pitch, and build in formative feedback checkpoints.


6. Diversify Formats Beyond Essays

AI is strongest in text generation. So, shake it up. Offer alternatives that engage different skills and media.


Formats to explore:

  • Video reflections or “learning vlogs”

  • Podcasts or mock interviews

  • Digital posters or infographic design

  • ePortfolios that include artifacts, drafts, and self-assessment


Bonus: These formats support Universal Design for Learning by giving students multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge.


7. Use In-Class Collaborative Assessments

Build in regular low-stakes, real-time tasks to monitor understanding and reduce over-reliance on take-home assignments.


Ideas that work:

  • In-Class Concept Mapping or Group Synthesis Activities: Have students collaboratively map out key ideas, processes, or relationships between concepts during class.

    • Search TeachShare for editable “concept map” templates and synthesis tasks used by other instructors in your subject.

    • Use the Creator Tool to build group versions of these tasks with real-time reflection prompts or follow-up journal entries.

  • “5-Minute Papers” After a Lecture to Reflect or Summarize: Give students just a few minutes to write down a key takeaway, lingering question, or real-world connection.

    • Use TeachShare to find low-stakes formative prompts tagged by learning outcome or topic.

    • The TeachShare Toolbox has a rubric generator to help you include a rubric for quick grading or feedback.

  • Peer Grading or Self-Assessment Using Co-Created Rubrics: Have students evaluate their own or each other’s work using rubrics developed together as a class.

    • Use the Creator Tool to help students collaboratively design criteria for evaluating group contributions, project planning, or presentations. These keep the learning active, and keep students honest.


8. Center Transparency and Digital Ethics

Set clear expectations about what is and is not okay when using AI. Include your students in the conversation.


How to do it:

  • Create an AI usage policy and share it at the beginning of the course.

  • Co-develop academic integrity agreements tied to specific assignments.

  • Integrate AI literacy lessons—what tools can do, where they fall short, and how to cite them when used.


TeachShare offers customizable assignment templates, rubrics, and reflection prompts that already include ethics checkpoints and AI-safe scaffolding.


Final Thoughts: Don’t Fear the Shift, Lead It

We’re not teaching in the same world we were five years ago. And that’s okay. The rise of AI doesn’t have to be a threat to academic integrity, it can be a catalyst for smarter, more engaging assessment design. The real goal isn’t just to block cheating. It’s to build learning experiences that students can’t fake, that they want to do, and that leave them thinking long after the grades are in.


Start with one small shift. Try one new strategy next term. Lean into collaboration. Explore tools like TeachShare that help you design, share, and refine assignments with other educators who are navigating the same challenges. AI is here. But so are you. And your role just became more essential than ever.


 
 
 

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