Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) Resource Guide for Faculty

Assignment Design and GAI

The opportunities and challenges associated with GAI are not much different from those faced by educators in the face of any other technology revolution. In recent times, educators have had to adapt to Google, Wikipedia, calculators, laptops and cell phones making their way into the classroom, bringing with them the potential for cheating. During the Covid-19 pandemic starting in 2020, many educators had to adapt to teaching fully online for the first time in their careers. At UMass Global, the Center for Instructional Innovation and the Library can help you design assignments that work harmoniously with new technology and minimize the potential for cheating. This page offers some advice about critical assignment design.

Page Contents:

• General Advice for Creating Critical Assignments
• Assignment Methodology
• Sample Assignments

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General Advice for Creating Critical Assignments

Creating prompts and assignments that lead students to produce the type of work we want to see has always been a challenge. Ideally, a well-constructed project should help connect students to their intended profession. These tips can help you write assignments that promote critical thinking, engage creativity, help students add their voice to their discipline, and hold them accountable for what they submit.

• Write prompts to be as specific as possible. For example, “ 'write 1000 words on Thelonious Monk's contributions to jazz' is more at risk of getting AI-generated responses than a paper that asks students to describe their experience listening to Monk’s music and how that experience reflects how he innovated music that came before or influenced music that they listen to today" (Northwestern University, 2023).
• Consider alternatives to a paper, such as recording a video or a podcast or creating an infographic or website. This allows students to demonstrate their knowledge of a topic without relying on written assessments. This also accommodates students who may have difficulties with written assignments.
• Scaffold every project. Have milestones that require frequent accountability (e.g., react to readings, develop and refine questions, write annotations, drafting, peer review, revising).
• Require journaling at each stage of the process. Students should report in chronological order how they did the work, where they did it, what results they got at each stage, how they adjusted, whom they asked for advice and how they incorporated that advice, etc.
• Ensure that all assignments give students an intriguing purpose to their work. This strategy boosts creativity and promotes critical thinking. See more on the RAFT method of assignment design below.
• Consider adding a statement on GAI in your syllabus, such as this example from Dr. La Fontain-Stokes of the University of Michigan:

GAI programs have become more prevalent globally. Our class goal is to help you develop basic and advanced writing skills. In this sense, we are truly invested in seeing what your current writing and research skills are and working with you to improve and further develop these. GenAI can be a useful tool but should not replace your personal skillset and your ideas. You are responsible for all content (ideas, facts, citations) that appears in the work you submit for our class, however the work is generated. We highly discourage the uncritical use of GenAI, which can be very detrimental. GenAI currently makes mistakes, and at times makes up information, referred to as “hallucinations.” The uncritical use of GenAI without attribution can be a violation of academic integrity and does not excuse you from inaccuracies in your work.

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Assignment Methodology

There are many good methods and theories about drafting prompts for academic projects. A well crafted assignment will foster critical thinking and reduce opportunities for any type of cheating. 

One method that is easy to emulate is the is RAFT Method of assignment construction as articulated in the book Engaging Ideas by John C. Bean. The RAFT model encourages task-based assignment writing that requires students to think and write in a way that models the processes and outputs of professionals in their discipline

Source: Bean, Engaging Ideas, 2nd ed., pp. 98-99.

Element	Description	Examples
R = Role	Giving students a clear purpose to the project and helps them understand the impact that the piece of writing is supposed to have on the audience.	Is this work intended to: be informative, analytical, persuasive, exploratory?  change views? teach a concept? demonstrate mastery?
A = Audience	Specifying who the student's work is directed toward. Asks students to consider how much their audience already knows, what prevailing views might be, and whether the audience is more or less expert than the author.	A classmate who does not understand a concept. A senator for whom you clerk. Readers of a local newspaper. A patient who needs to decide among treatment options.
F = Format	What kind of work is the student expected to produce and what should it look like? Helps students learn the concept of genre or typical writing in their chosen discipline.	Academic paper Op-ed Memo Proposal Experiment Debate Etc.
T = Task	Presents students with a "task as intriguing problem" (TIP) or a prompt to get them out of the descriptive mode.	Explain a concept to the classmate who does not understand it. Draft a policy brief for the senator. Write an op-ed for a local newspaper. Present the pros and cons of each treatment option to the patient who has to decide which course to choose.

Bean illustrates variations in assignment design with an example of the different ways in which a prompt could be written. As you read the examples below, Bean asks that we consider:

• What differences in thinking are apt to be encouraged by each option?
• What are advantages and disadvantages of each option?

With regard to GAI, we might further consider:

• Which options have elements that you could allow students to enhance with GAI?
• Which options have the most elements that are most likely to discourage cheating?
• What should happen before any of these assignment variations is presented to students to ensure that they have the skills and confidence to complete it ethically and competently?

Source: Bean, Engaging Ideas, 2nd ed., pp. 92-93. Click image to enlarge.

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Sample Assignments

Here are samples of assignment prompts that either engage with GAI or make it difficult for GAI to generate successfully. These assignments should, of course, be "scaffolded," or preceded by prior exercises that prepare students for all the work necessary to complete it.

The background colors in the boxes below were selected by asking ChatGPT for the hex codes for light background colors.

General Assignment Prompts

 

 

 

 

 

Assignment Prompts that Engage with GAI