Like many instructors, Professor Sabrina Harris is reconsidering what her classroom activities and assessments should look like in response to the increase in AI availability and use. When Harris first began teaching her course, Planning Livable Cities, one of the basic requirements was that students take a quiz on the assigned readings in the first five minutes of every class. Harris’ rationale was that this would motivate students to do the reading and hold them accountable for the content. However, as the semester went on, she felt that the quizzes weren’t measuring much in terms of students’ learning and they also seemed to stress her students out.
Harris teaches in the School of Planning and Public Affairs and her course examines the development of livable cities in the United States. In this course students consider the following questions: What makes city “livable”? What maintains our cities? What is shaping our future urban areas?
Weighing goals of accountability, engagement, and learning, Harris decided to move to online written reflections with a straightforward format of one paragraph of summary and one paragraph of reflection. These were open ended and graded for good faith effort. However, she soon noticed that while most students completed the work, it was often rushed and did not include much reflection. Worse, Professor Harris began to suspect that some students were using AI to write their papers.
Harris says she didn’t “want to be in the position of judging” if students were using AI. Moreover, she wanted to create conditions for learning rather than conditions that led students to produce rushed or artificial output. This is when she decided she would switch to asking students to write their reflections on paper. However, unlike many instructors who have gone back to paper and pencil methods, Professor Harris still has students do this assignment as homework, outside of class.
Students hand their reflection papers to Harris on the way into class and she uses them as as a way to track attendance for almost every class meeting. She recognizes that, of course, a student can simply copy something composed by AI, but Harris is not worried. “Even if they use AI, at least it goes in their eyes, their brains, through their arms, out the pencil … and something will stick!”
She has found that the handwritten assignments has freed her from policing students AI use and freed the students from stress. It sends a signal that she cares about their learning, wants to hear what they have to say, and does not care if the writing is not “perfect.” She also makes sure to talk individually with students with accommodations and gives them the option to continue to type their papers or use whatever method works best for them.
Harris says that her learning goals for her summary/reflection assignment are for students to connect the assigned readings to other discussions, texts, and concepts in the course. When students see that they receive full credit for engaging with course materials as well as get attendance credit, they can take a risk without fear of harming their grades. It also shows that Professor Harris values students’ presence and participation.
Harris has seen increased student engagement as she has moved from quiz to reflection, and from typed to handwritten papers. She believes that asking students to write their reflections down makes them think a little more and increases their confidence to participate in class. Ultimately this low-stakes, high-impact practice is giving Professor Harris’ students an opportunity to slow down and use writing to think and make connections.