ETUG Spring Workshop 2023 – Day 1.
5. Grace Seo, Traynor Hansen | Why are we Doing This Again?: Will AI writing tools push us to reconsider the way we assess?

Recorded June 1, 2023

AI writing tools, such as ChatGPT, use natural language processing and machine learning, which can generate a wide range of outputs, including text-based responses to prompts, creative writing, translation, summaries, etc. Since ChatGPT was released in November 2022, many academics have expressed their apprehension about this tool. What does it mean for our assessment practices if AI writing tools can resemble student work, complete assignments, or even pass their exams? Will students use AI writing tools as a shortcut around other forms of learning?

Despite these widely publicized fears, we may see ChatGPT push teaching and learning in different directions. In the same way that the global pandemic forced us to take different approaches to teaching, the introduction of AI writing tools ought to challenge us to reconsider how we measure student learning. If ChatGPT can produce bad essays that are good enough for students to make the grade in some circumstances, how does the advent of AI writing tools force us to change how we assess student learning? Will this prompt us to reconsider our assessments, such as how the strengths and weaknesses of AI writing tools relate to the goals of writing assignments in our classes or disciplines? Why are we doing this again, and why are we asking our students to do it? Join us to explore these questions as ChatGPT changes how we assess learning.

Attachments: Transcript (Word, PDF, Text), Slides (PDF)

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