These strategies help students apply knowledge in meaningful ways while developing the skills they will need in a workplace where AI tools are increasingly common.

• Start with What Students Should Be Able to Do: Design assignments around authentic outcomes rather than content coverage alone. Ask:
  • What should students be able to create, analyze, solve, or communicate by the end of this activity?
  • How might they apply this knowledge in their future careers or communities?
  • What evidence would demonstrate meaningful learning?

When students understand the purpose behind an assignment, engagement and motivation often increase.

• Create Authentic Learning Experiences: Consider real-world problems, scenarios, audiences, and products whenever possible. Instead of asking students to simply repeat information, invite them to:
  • Develop recommendations for a real organization
  • Analyze current issues within their discipline
  • Create products intended for an authentic audience
  • Solve challenges relevant to their future profession

Authentic assignments encourage deeper learning because students see value beyond earning a grade.

• Align Assignments with Learning Outcomes: Ensure each project or presentation directly supports course objectives. Clearly communicate which outcomes students are practicing and why those skills matter. Use rubrics to outline performance standards and share examples of successful work to demystify expectations. This helps students connect course activities to broader learning goals.
• Design with AI in Mind: Rather than asking whether students might use AI, assume they have access to it and design accordingly. Consider:
  • Which aspects of the assignment should involve AI support?
  • Which skills should students demonstrate independently?
  • How can students show their thinking, decision-making, and reflection?

Assignments that require personal experiences, discipline-specific judgment, iterative drafts, reflection, or application to local contexts are often more meaningful and harder to outsource entirely to AI tools.

• Use Scaffolding for Complex Projects: Break large assignments into smaller, manageable stages with milestones, checkpoints, and drafts. This provides opportunities for formative feedback while making student thinking visible throughout the learning process. It also shifts attention from the final product to the learning process itself.
  • Consider incorporating Peerceptiv, an online peer assessment platform that empowers students to give and receive constructive feedback while developing critical evaluation skills.
• Encourage Student Choice and Voice: Allow students flexibility in topics, formats, audiences, or approaches when appropriate. Student agency increases motivation and can lead to more creative, personalized demonstrations of learning. Tools like Adobe Express can support a variety of presentation and storytelling formats.

• Design Group Work Intentionally: Collaborative assignments should include clear roles, shared expectations, and opportunities for peer feedback. Consider how students will use collaboration tools and AI tools ethically while still demonstrating individual learning and accountability.

These practical tips will help you grade more efficiently, consistently, and with a focus on student growth and deep learning. 

• Grade Efficiently and Fairly: Grade question-by-question across submissions to maintain consistency. Skim samples before grading to identify common patterns. Consider anonymous grading.
• Use Rubrics and Comment Banks: Rubrics clarify expectations and streamline grading. Comment banks save time and ensure consistent, high-quality feedback across students.

• Focus Feedback on Growth and Learning: Provide actionable, specific feedback that helps students strengthen their thinking, reasoning, communication, and application of course concepts. 

  As learning environments continue to evolve and generative AI tools become more common, assessment may need to move beyond evaluating final products alone. Consider assessing:

  • Decision-making and reasoning
  • Drafts and revision processes
  • Reflection on learning
  • Application of knowledge to authentic situations
  • Effective and ethical use of AI tools when permitted

Feedback can then focus not only on correctness, but also on judgment, creativity, problem-solving, and growth over time. 

• Be Transparent About Grading Policies: Communicate turnaround times, late work policies, and grade appeal procedures clearly in your syllabus.
• Consider Ungrading or Alternative Assessment: Explore models that emphasize reflection and growth over points. This can reduce student anxiety and foster deeper learning.