Using Generative Artificial Intelligence in Assessment
The responsible, ethical and appropriate use of generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) underpins all digital capabilities. As such GenAI is not considered an independent digital capability. Consider how GenAI is currently and will be used in the future in your disciplinary context and ensure learning and assessment is designed to model these current and emerging GenAI practices.
We should not be wary of students using GenAI in higher education, as this is the perfect opportunity to explore and test the affordances and limitations of GenAI, and instill the necessary ethical and responsible uses specific to your disciplinary context. Rather than banning the use of GenAI in assessment, we should be embracing the opportunities it presents to our students to focus moreso on the higher order thinking and process tasks and support students to know when and how to use GenAI to their advantage in an ethical and responsible way.
We may instruct students to use GenAI (mandatory component), recommend students to use GenAI (optional component), or permit students to use GenAI (say it is ok to use if they want to) as part of an assessment, all of which support their development of this essential digital capability.
Activity 1: For each of your assessments mapped to a digital capability, consider whether GenAI could be embedded to enhance student productivity, and/or allow students to apply GenAI in discipline-specific contexts to strengthen authenticity of the assessment. Flag each unit that will embed GenAI.
Activity 2: For each GenAI flagged unit, use the below checklist to identify how you see students engaging with GenAI. Do you recommend students using GenAI for assessment preparation, analysis/investigation, writing, and/or editing? Tick each of the boxes and other additional discipline-specific assessment tasks where students are authorised to use GenAI (whether mandated, optional or permitted).
Activity 3: In calibrating the assessment task with students, it is important to communicate expectations in using GenAI in the assessment. It is recommended that you have a clear and detailed explanation of how GenAI should or could be used and where GenAI may not be appropriate (eg. may breach ethical requirements or may not be beneficial to the specific task as it may not perform well at this specific task in this specific assessment – at least at this current moment in time). Refer to the below example on communicating GenAI expectations with students. Use this table as a template to write specific GenAI expectations for each of the flagged unit assessments and post on the online learning management system alongside assessment task instructions. It is also recommended you refer to these expectations in class activities with the students, where the appropriate use of GenAI is modelled to students.
Example of how GenAI expectations were communicated to students for a specific assessment (LQB670 Anatomical Dissection, Case Study assessment, Queensland University of Technology, Australia)
| Assessment stage | Assessment task | Is Gen AI recommended? | Instructions |
| Planning | Understanding assessment instructions | Yes | Gen AI may be used to clarify the assessment details. |
| Suggesting structure | No | A general structure guide is already provided in the assessment task sheet. | |
| Brainstorming possible topics | N/A | ||
| Defining terms | Yes | If there are any terms in the assessment instructions or marking criteria you are not sure about, you may use Gen AI to define them to improve your understanding of the expectations of this assessment item. | |
| Practicing | N/A | ||
| Investigating | Performing information searches | Yes | Gen AI may be used to identify possible pathologies by describing your physical observations in a prompt. You will then need to investigate these possible pathologies further by using verified and peer-reviewed source material to justify your estimated cause of death. Use of Gen AI must be acknowledged and appropriately referenced and notes provided as to what prompts were used after the reference list of your assignment. Note that current Gen AI is not the most appropriate tool to undertake peer-reviewed literature searches. It is recommended that you use the QUT Library databases to perform literature searches. |
| Studying the topic | Yes | Gen AI may be used to investigate possible pathologies in more detail, including associated causes of death that may be linked to the suspected pathology. As AI-generated content may not be accurate, reliable, or may display bias, you are recommended to verify all information in peer-reviewed source material to evidence your cause of death analysis. Note that current Gen AI is not the most appropriate tool to undertake peer-reviewed literature searches. It is recommended that you use the QUT Library databases to perform literature searches. Use of Gen AI must be acknowledged and appropriately referenced and notes provided as to what prompts were used. | |
| Identifying methodologies | N/A | ||
| Writing
|
Summarising literature | Yes | Gen AI may be used to paraphrase information from primary literature using appropriate prompts to address specific research questions in probable causes of anatomical variation. Note that current Gen AI is not the most appropriate tool to undertake peer-reviewed literature searches. It is recommended that you use the QUT Library databases to perform literature searches to first identify relevant contemporary literature. Use of Gen AI must be acknowledged and appropriately referenced and notes provided as to what prompts were used. |
| Writing some text | Yes in some cases | This assignment requires a high level of discipline-specific terminology related to physical observations you have made in the laboratory and using the donor CT scans. It is therefore not recommended to rely on generative AI to write anatomical descriptions of these observations as these are likely to be inaccurate and/or not reflective of the anatomical specificity required in this assessment. You may find GenAI beneficial in writing some text to complete the anatomical variation table to explain the causes of anatomical variation as described in ‘summarising literature’. | |
| Making images, video, audio, slidedecks | No | It is not permitted to upload donor photos or CT images into Gen AI as this would breach donor consent. Therefore it is not appropriate to use Gen AI to create scientific figures for this assignment. | |
| Analysis of data | N/A | ||
| Editing
|
Improving clarity and readability | Yes | You may use Gen AI to improve the clarity and readability of your writing. Use the prompt: “You are a pathologist writing a cause of death report following a macroscopic and CT-based analysis of all organs. Improve the clarity and readability of this section of writing.” It is recommended that you also ask Gen AI to “Summarise what changes were made” so that you can reflect on the improvements made to your writing. |
| Correcting spelling and grammar | Yes | You may use Gen AI to perform a spelling and grammar review and correct any errors. Use the prompt: “Fix grammar and spelling without changing the language choices”. It is recommended that you also ask Gen AI to “Summarise what grammar and spelling was changed” so that you can reflect on the improvements made to your writing. | |
| Making text more succinct | Yes in some cases | If you are over the page limit requirements, you may use Gen AI to reduce your wordcount. Use the prompt: “Make text more succinct without changing language choices”. This generally will only make small adjustments where there is redundancy or repetition (e.g. 15%). Larger word cuts will need to be actioned without the aid of Gen AI as it may make significant changes to the content included, which may negatively impact the quality of your assignment. |
