Post-AI Assignment Ideas

Below you'll find some examples of "post-AI" assignments. Many of these genres pre-date the ubiquity of generative AI on campus, but they have become more appealing to larger numbers of instructors due to their positive impact on student engagement and their alignment with relevant course objectives.

Short Video Activities

Canvas Studio is available to students and faculty. Students can upload and embed videos in Discussions/Assignments or record in the tool (student-facing documentation available in addition to student access to 24/7 Canvas Help button support). If instructors and students are more comfortable recording in Zoom, those files can be uploaded to Studio!
Short video (3-5 minute) tasks like content "explainers," discussions of self-selected media, or sharing of personal experiences relevant to course contexts can be potential starting points for video assignment work. Think about student and instructor experiences with short-form video in professional (tutorial) and personal (social media) contexts.
Informal / conversational submissions can deter student temptation to create AI scripts or highlight the limitations of scripts that seem too rigid, monotonous, or bland.
Model video approaches and ask students to engage with peer videos. Students are likely familiar with informally assessing video content in other contexts; consider how to connect these experiences to professional contexts of content creation and assessment.

Discussion Board Posts Can Still Be Writing-Centric!

Model multimodal and citation preferences: hyperlinks, use of images, required details for citations, embedded media like video content. Assignment prompts can demonstrate preferred online writing approaches. You might also invite students to share multimodal online work that they encounter or value regularly in professional and personal contexts. Many discussion board spaces don't take full advantage of multimodal possibilities.
Consider assignment tasks that ask students to review other work and reflect on their own submissions (vs "I agree with this" replies). Model preferred engagement / critique / discussion. Consider collaboration and annotation software like Hypothesis (which can be integrated with your Canvas course; talk to ITS for additional information).
Reviewing other submissions invites discussion of submission trends that may suggest AI outsourcing (everyone choosing a similar example or quote, similar language). If you are teaching in a class that meets live in-person or online, consider ways to introduce, assess, and discuss work submitted asynchronously with students so they understand its value and your submission preferences.
You can note conditions where students may be asked to resubmit or why they may not receive assignment credit (and explain why) without accusing a student of using AI, especially if you lack concrete evidence.
Connect online submissions to in-class activities and expectations and consider how to assess both (modality-dependent); are there activities that students can begin online and complete in-person?

Oral and Handwritten Assessment

Consider equity implications for your students when developing oral and handwritten assessment activities. What challenges or barriers may a shift to these types of activities create for multilingual learners, students with identifiable or invisible accessibility needs, or students who have never been asked to hand-write major assessment exams? Are you creating space in your course to introduce these assessment contexts and to have students try them out in lower-stakes assessment contexts? Are you modeling particular approaches?
Consider low-stakes or ungraded activities: handwritten notes, short oral presentations to peers, in-class pass/fail or ungraded quizzes to identify engagement challenges.
Explain your intentions and motivations for using these types of assessment: interest in cognitive retention, engagement/attention concerns, professional development contexts. Solicit discussion/feedback to gauge how these activities help students meet course objectives.
If you are interested in these assessment contexts because of concerns related to attention and potential distractions caused by classroom technologies (laptops, phones, music), you may want to consider establishing some classroom norms for when certain technology use is encouraged and when students should put away certain tools. Keep in mind accessibility needs and multilingual learner contexts like the benefits of accessing translation tools.

Quizzes and Exams

Low stakes, in-person quizzes with temporal constraints that gauge student engagement with course objectives, materials, and concepts can preface in-class sessions, informing discussions and helping instructors identify pain points for students as well as topics of interest.
Online quiz checkpoints and "knowledge checks" can be a tool to shift away from high-stakes, summative assessment activities if instructors want to incorporate scaffolding and iterative learning approaches (or allay concerns about students outsourcing work to AI on larger exams or quizzes).
Leveraging Canvas tools like Question Banks and shuffling options can create variety and variability in online exams. We do recommend that instructors still let students know what subject areas and question types they can expect to see in these assessment contexts.
Some instructors have experimented with asking for additional context alongside quiz answers: citations, justifications/explanations, etc. These requests may be a useful way to help gauge what course resources or external resources students are reviewing (or what they may find challenging).
Surveillance technology like Lockdown Browser and Respondus Monitor have limitations, time commitments/learning curves (for instructors and students), and can negatively impact student experiences (creating stress or anxiety). That being said, there may be instructors who are interested in using technology that aligns with professional assessment contexts or conditions. Please contact ITS if you have questions about available resources and tutorials.

Additional AI Assignment Redesign Ideas