The rise and rise of Large Large Models have caught the education world largely by surprise and left teachers and exam boards scrambling to catch up. There are many uncertainties as to where the technology is going to lead us, but one thing is certain – it’s here to stay!
The biggest concern for many professionals is how to control the use of AI, so that we can be confident that a student’s work is there own. There’s no magic bullet for this, but here are a few tips to reduce the likelihood of plagiarism in students work and achieve successful assessment in the age of AI and ChatGPT.
Include reference to recent events when setting assignments
Most Large Language Models (LLMs) take a long time to train and so most don’t contain up to date information. This means that students are going to struggle to use ChatGPT and other models to copy their entire essay. You can take advantage of this by including essay titles that reference recent events.
Examples
- What were that causes and consequences of last week’s earthquake in New Guinea
- Compare yesterday’s vote in parliament with similar votes in the last 2 years
Make reference to events personal to the student/school
ChatGPT’s access to Social Media is severely restricted, since most this data is behind paywalls and sign-in walls. This means that it will most likely provide limited, incorrect or fabricated responses. When thinking of assignments try to bring in a personal element that reduces the chances of work being plagiarized. It’s also likely to make the assignment more fun and meaningful!
Examples
- Discuss how the laws of supply and demand affected you on a recent family trip
Make reference to local events, business and organisations
LLMs are great for well known, widely referenced topics, but when an assignment is based around a local business or organisation it will tend to struggle!
Examples
- Compare the marketing strategies of Peter’s Blinds with the local fish and chip shop
Use paper-based/online assignments for high stakes testing
LLMs currently can’t yet yet convincinly on paper and so students will have no choice but to write their answers! If you use a one shot approach to assignments, where students aren’t allowed to erase/alter their work then plagiarized work should be easy enough to spot and few students are able to write whole sides of A4 without making mistakes.
Example
- Write one side on A4 on the significance of AI in education. Do not use cross your work or use an eraser pen.
Use craft based assignments for added engagement
Another great strategy is to issue create craft or poster making assignments. These types of resources can’t be copied from ChatGPT and as an added bonus they are great fun and highly engaging for the students!
Example
- Create a poster demonstrating each of the steps in the product life cycle
Do you any tips of your own?
These are the top tips so far. Do you have any tips of your own that you would like me to add to the post? If so head over to my Youtube channel and add a comment on the video and I’ll get them added!
Running CPD at school?
Are you a teacher running CPD at school for other teachers? Feel free to use & adapt my Google slides presentation