Beyond the Final Draft: Rethinking Assignments in the Age of AI
Jenny Mouse Describes How to Rethink Assignments
Intro
AI has changed the way we think about writing assignments, but the bigger question is: What are we actually trying to teach our students?
As a college professor and writing coach, I’ve been thinking about how we can design assignments that measure learning rather than simply measuring a student's ability to produce a polished final paper.
Is the Five-Paragraph Essay Still Relevant?
The five-paragraph essay has been around for a long time. But before we automatically assign another essay, we should ask:
What are students actually learning from this assignment?
AI makes this question even more important. Students have always had ways to copy, share, or find answers online. AI simply makes producing a polished response much easier.
Rather than trying to catch every possible use of AI, we can rethink how we design assignments.
Three Ways to Rethink Assignments
1. Make AI Difficult to Use
Some assignments can be completed in person through presentations, handwritten work, discussions, or supervised activities.
This can work well—but it isn't always practical, especially for online and asynchronous programs.
2. Focus on the Process
Instead of grading only the final product, ask students to show how they got there.
For a writing assignment, that might include:
An outline
A rough draft
Feedback and revisions
Tracked changes
The final version
The goal isn't to create more work for students. It's to make the learning process part of the assignment.
3. Make Assignments More Real
One of the most effective ways to discourage meaningless AI-generated work is to give students something meaningful to do.
For example, instead of asking students to write a fake professional email, have them research someone in their field and send a real email with a genuine purpose.
Now the assignment has a reason to exist.
The student has to make decisions, communicate with another person, and think about what they actually want to accomplish.
AI Doesn't Have to Be the Enemy
Students are going to encounter AI in school, at work, and in everyday life.
Rather than treating AI as something we simply need to eliminate, we can teach students how to use it responsibly while still requiring them to understand, evaluate, and take ownership of their work.
AI might help polish a piece of writing, but students still need to be able to communicate their own ideas.
We're not all writers, but we're all communicators.
The Bigger Opportunity
AI has exposed some weaknesses in the way we evaluate learning.
Maybe that's not entirely a bad thing.
Instead of focusing so heavily on the final product, we can put more emphasis on:
Critical thinking
Analysis
Communication
The learning process
Real-world application
Mastery of the material
AI gives us an opportunity to rethink what we're asking students to do—and why.
The goal shouldn't be to help students survive an AI-powered world. It should be to help them thrive in it.
Want to hear the full discussion? Watch the video above for the complete conversation.