Module 4 - Assessments with AI

 INTRODUCTION

Technology, specifically AI, or Artificial Intelligence is impacting the ways in which students are tested and graded. In this module we are going to discuss about how AI can support in assessments.

How can AI help in the current tests or exercises, which assess what you have learnt in a part of course? 

AI can:

1. Grade tests quickly

2. Give feedback right away

3. Group specific questions to match the level of the individual students.

4. Identify what makes specific portions of the material difficult for students

In this module, we'll explore:

- Formative assessments with AI

- Summative Assessments with AI

- Creating Assessment Instruments with AI

- Generic and Personalized Feedback with AI

At the end of this lecture you are going to be able to know how AI has transformed assessments in education.

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND EXPECTATIONS 

1. I might be curious as to how it functions and what it is capable to deliver in the assessments.

2. What could be new techniques that can help in the testing process or in making the process easier.

3. If it can replace human trainers or if it can understand very comprehensive answers.

4. I may think about how accurate the grading by AI can be and whether the AI grading system is appropriate for such tasks as essays or creative work.

5. I might be asking myself how this would be of any relevance to the future learning or to the education profession.

6. I probably wish to know the general information about AI in education and the implications.

7. I may be asking if I also can use the assessment tools for practice using the AI.

8. I may be wondering what has led me to the realization of some of the changes in the tests and assessments facilitated by the use of AI in how I learn or test.

REFLECTION ON KEY CONCEPTS:

What were the most important concepts you learned in this module?

- Formative Assessment: 

1. It is an often repeating activity on determining how much students have comprehended.

2. It was stressed that it should be applied not only when reinforcement learning is complete but during the learning process itself.

3. Serves the purpose of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning.

Key features:

- Ensures that the student and teacher can get fast responses.

- Can contribute to the identifying of some sort of knowledge deficit. 

- Enables the teachers to innovate on what they teach the students.

- They usually foster self-reflection of individual learning among students. 

Examples include:

- Quick quizzes

- Class discussions

- Practice problems

- Informal observations

While the main objective is not about grades, it is about facilitating and improving the learning process.

- Summative Assessment:

1. It is an evaluation of the knowledge gain of the students at the end of an assimilation section. 

2. Employed to determine how well targets were accomplished in the course of implementing the set tasks.

3. More frequently than not, they are utilised for high stakes and intended for grading.

Key features:

- Rises after learning/ acquisition has occurred

- Develops an assessment of how well the students understood the material or how advanced their existing skills are.

- Typically leads to a mark / grade

- Is beneficial for the assessment of a course or program to check effectiveness.

Examples include:

- Final exams

- End-of-unit tests

- Presentations 

In the case of summative assessment the main purpose is to identify what the students have learned at different stages and to what extent they have achieved the learning outcomes.

How did this concepts challenge your previous understanding of English language teaching?

These concepts of formative and summative assessment, especially when combined with AI, could challenge my previous understanding of English language teaching in several ways:

1. Continuous evaluation: I might have thought of assessment as mostly, end-term exams but on formative assessment it is more of a continuous process.

2. Feedback speed: AI could also give feedback to the use of language which might be faster than some of the techniques used in normal teaching.

3. Personalization: AI-assisted evaluations might be potentially more effective because it would not be using the one size fits all approach.

4. Objectivity: I may have viewed grading as – for instance – subjective particularly in tasks like writing assignments. Still, AI may be more objective with their assessment.

5. Teacher's role: This raises the question of whether the teacher's task may change from the one that focuses on the assessment to the one that explains the AI elaborated data and shares recommendations.

6. Focus on process: To further demonstrate formative assessment’s approach of attending to the process rather than the end product, we could need to reconsider the idea of progress in learning a foreign language.

7. Data-driven instruction: Experience would give detailed information on performance of students hence enabling the teachers to consider this and give a closer attention.

8. Assessment frequency: With AI, it can be ascertained that frequency of assessment can be done more often but the workload of the teachers will not be affected.

9. Skills emphasis: AI can be more accurate for some of them [skills] (for example, grammar) compared to others [skills] (for example, personal creativity) which can lead to changing the focus in teaching.

CONCLUSION AND KEY LEARNINGS:

How will the knowledge gained from this module influence your teaching methods?

The knowledge gained from this module on AI and assessments is likely to influence my English language teaching methods in several ways:

I may begin to use additional periodic assessments along with the summative ones, which will lead to an improved evaluation system.

I can start by using AI-based applications for the language tests like auto spell and grammar check, auto pronunciation checker and some others. 

I may be able to create more personalised lessons according to what an AI algorithm assessment of each student is.

I could incorporate more formative assessment into my classes to design activities that allow students to eliminate mistakes.

Can you think of a specific lesson or activity where you could apply what you've learned?

Here I have an example with a specific activity that incorporates formative assessment:

Activity: AI-Assisted Writing 

For enhancing students’ writing skills in view of formative writing assessment with the help of AI tools.

I have to describe the activity for the class and also welcome the AI writing tool that I am going to use (for instance Grammarly, ProWritingAid).

Students type a one-paragraph response on a topic of the teacher’s choosing.

Students input their paragraphs to the AI tool and then the tool notifies them of the grammar mistakes, suitable vocabulary or proper writing style.

The students work on the AI feedback and point out the areas that might need correction.

Students are assigned partners and discuss what AI suggestions they were given and how they will counter them.

After the AI analysis of the several paragraphs written earlier and discussion with partners, students improve the results of their writing.

I edit both the constructed pictures and the improved ideas, incorporating my notes which I may have written on the former.

Students type a short description of the main points of the communication with the AI tool and their observation of the difference between the AI and teacher feedback. 

INCORPORATION OF CONTENT CREATED WITH AI

Here I share a rubric that I created to assess student's writing and this has been a great experience in which I could have the opportunity to know an easy way to create material or use AI to assess students. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VcbKEdjX2zICYDKaGObDwRoX-6-i3TVj/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=102036365529574953113&rtpof=true&sd=true