Leon Furze

This is the second post in a series exploring the AI Assessment Scale (AIAS) in more detail. In the previous post, I looked at Level 1: No AI. This time we move up a level and explore how students might deliberately incorporate Generative AI into the brainstorming, ideations and structuring of their work.

Before I get into the kinds of tasks and assessments suitable at this level, just a reminder: the AIAS is a tool to discuss appropriate use of GenAI with students. It is not an assessment security tool to prevent the use of AI, nor an academic misconduct tool to catch students in the act of using AI. 

As I discussed in the previous article, detection tools aren’t reliable and trying to ban or otherwise police GenAI is a pointless endeavour. Instead, students are looking to us for advice on how they might use the tools and applications appropriately.

Practical AI Strategies includes an entire section on GenAI policy and assessment. It is available from Amba Press

Level 2: Ideas and Structure

Tasks in Level 2 incorporate GenAI as part of the ideation, brainstorming, or structuring of tasks. AT this level, the final submitted work – whether that’s an essay, article, report, folio, or anything else – must be human-made. Generative AI can be used not only to generate ideas, but also to augment, explore, or deepen the student’s own ideas.

There are a few reasons why you might want to encourage use of GenAI for brainstorming and structure, but no further, such as:

• Students are learning to use the technology, and are looking for an easy way in to GenAI
• Brainstorming and idea generation need to happen quickly, and don’t form the bulk of the assessed skills
• Students already have all of the pre-requisite knowledge, and need a way to quickly organise and iterate on those ideas
• GenAI is suggested as a way to explore and investigate ideas and missed opportunities, even if students generate their own ideas first
• GenAI is used as part of a collaborative brainstorming exercise 

At this level, students might also use GenAI to structure their existing ideas, such as organising notes. I use GenAI in this way myself for many tasks related to my studies and my business, for example:

• Transcribing a verbal brainstorm, and using GenAI to further refine and organise the transcription
• Using image recognition to capture handwritten notes and organising them using GenAI
• Recording (with everyone’s permission) a group brainstorming session and using GenAI to organise and clarify the transcript

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Ideas for Level 2 assessments

1. Languages: Using GenAI for generating conversation topics or scripts, students then conduct conversations or role-plays in a foreign language based on these AI-suggested scenarios.
2. Art: Students might use AI to generate initial concepts or visual inspirations. They can then create their own physical art pieces, blending technology with traditional artistic skills.
3. Mathematics: AI can assist in formulating complex mathematical problems or scenarios for practising new concepts. Students then solve these problems using traditional methods.
4. History: AI can be used to structure timelines or generate initial thesis ideas for essays. Students then conduct traditional research to write detailed analyses.
5. Science: In science classes, AI could be used for analysing data sets or creating mock datasets to assist with experiments. Students then perform experiments to test their hypotheses.
6. Music: AI might suggest compositions or variations on musical pieces, or be used to generate sound files (such as via Stable Audio) in various styles for inspiration. Students use these suggestions to create their own music, demonstrating their creative and interpretative skills.
7. Physical Education: AI can analyse sports strategies or fitness routines, or generate ideas for training plans. Students apply these strategies in practical sessions, demonstrating physical skills and understanding of the activity.
8. Economics: AI could help analyse economic data and trends or generate mock data. Students then use this analysis to formulate arguments for debates on economic theories or current events, focusing on their analytical skills.
9. Environmental Studies: Students can use AI to simulate environmental changes, brainstorm ideas about sustainability projects, and predict impacts of different technologies or changes.
10. Drama: AI can assist in generating ideas for scripts or characters for performances. Students then use these ideas to perform scenes or monologues, focusing on acting skills and script interpretation.

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Lesson activities and ideas 

In the previous post I gave brief examples like the ones above across a range of disciplines, but based on the comments people were interested in a few more detailed ideas. 

Here are a couple of ideas for brainstorming and using GenAI for organising and structuring notes. 

Combining GenAI with thinking routines 

I’m a big fan of the Project Zero Thinking Routines, and they offer a great way to extend students’ brainstorming with GenAI. For example, students could do their own brainstorming individually or in groups, and then take their initial ideas and run them through a routine like Generate Sort Connect Elaborate with a prompt like the following:

These are our group’s ideas for a sustainable furniture item that will respond to this client’s brief <copy/paste design brief>: <copy/paste initial brainstorm>. Use the Generate Sort Connect Elaborate thinking routine to help us extend our initial ideas – go through the routine like you are a member of our group

Basically, students complete the “generate” stage, and then hand over to GenAI to add a few suggestions and assist with the S-C-E steps. Here’s an example from a mock design brief using Microsoft Copilot:

Using GenAI to organise unstructured notes 

1. Record verbal brainstorming into any app, such as voice memo on an iPhone, Quicktime on a mac, or Voice Recorder on Windows. This can be individual or group brainstorming, a discussion, a monologue – really any kind of verbal ideation (ensure you have permission for recording voices, and discourage using real names)
2. Use an AI-based transcription app. You can transcribe audio in Google Docs and Microsoft Word, or you can use a separate app. I use Otter.AI*
3. Take the (probably messy) transcript, and pass it to a GenAI app like Copilot to “tidy up”. You can provide explicit instructions on what you would like to do with the transcript like the following prompt example.

Organise the following transcript into a more readable document. Use markdown formatting for headings and subheadings. Assign key ideas to the speaker(s) that discussed them, create a timeline of follow up actions, and add any extra general notes at the end. <copy/paste transcript>

Comment on this post, or on the social media post where you found it with a few ideas of your own – I’d love to build up a collection of lesson and assessment ideas which can be aligned to every level of the AIAS.

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