SUNY Council on Assessment Webinar-Assessment in the Age of AI

As generative AI tools become increasingly integrated into students’ academic lives, faculty face new challenges and opportunities in assessing student learning. Students are already using AI—sometimes in innovative and productive ways, sometimes as a shortcut for course-level assessments such as essays and exams. This reality raises critical questions: Can we still rely on traditional assessments as valid reflections of learning? How should faculty adapt assessment practices to ensure integrity, especially in online learning environments?

• The importance of developing clear course- or assignment-level policies guiding students’ use (or non-use) of AI.
• How and when to communicate these policies to students, with transparency about the rationale behind them.
• How transparency, as highlighted in Winkelmes’s research on the impact of “teaching for transparency,” can bolster student motivation by clarifying why particular assignments are structured the way they are and how AI use fits—or does not fit—within that framework.

By engaging with these questions, the discussion aims to help faculty design assessments that not only reflect authentic student learning but also thoughtfully address the challenges and possibilities AI brings into higher education.

Panelists:

Jeannie Brown Leonard, SUNY Adirondack Community College

Sam Abramovich, University at Buffalo

Debora Ortloff, Fingerlakes Community College