Designing beyond detection #GenAIN3

Over the past year, one question has surfaced repeatedly in conversations about generative AI in higher education: “What do we do about assessment?”

For many, the immediate response has been to look for ways to detect AI-generated work. Whether this is truly their viewpoint or the ‘easy’ option that lets them rely on the existing assessment provider and their system roadmap, it’s an understandable reaction. I’m increasingly convinced it’s the wrong place to start.

When we focus on detection, we’re responding to yesterday’s problem. The more interesting and more important question is whether our assessments ask students to demonstrate the kinds of thinking, judgment, and creativity that remain valuable regardless of the tools available to them, with a look ahead to tomorrow’s problem.

This approach forms the basis of a chapter I’ve written for the forthcoming Manifesto for Generative AI in Higher Education. My chapter, Designing Beyond Detection, responds to the manifesto theme “Rethinking teaching and learning” and the statement: “Detection chases the past; thoughtful design shapes the future.”

“To chase detection is to fight the future with the tools of the past. Designing assessments that reward originality, reflection, and human insight changes the rules entirely. Instead of policing use, we design for purpose – where the value lies in the process, not the product.”

Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience in learning design, digital learning, and system transformation projects across the EdTech community and UK higher education, the chapter argues that the future of academic integrity lies less in surveillance and more in thoughtful assessment design. Rather than asking how we detect AI, perhaps we should be asking how we design learning that makes authentic thinking worth demonstrating.

I’m delighted that the chapter has been accepted for publication alongside contributions from colleagues across the sector. I’m looking forward to reading the other perspectives as much as I am to seeing my own work published again.

Update

You can read my chapter here: Detection chases the past; thoughtful design shapes the future in Manifesto for Generative AI in Higher Education – The Book Project. H. Farrell & K. McCarthy (Eds.)