1 March 2024

Some guiding principles for tweaking assignments to make it harder for students to use AI chatbots

Putting certain specific conditions (eg personalisation and localised) on an assignment should make it harder for students to get ‘alternative’ output using advanced AI chatbot prompting strategies that acceptably meet such assignment requirements.

Check all AI results for accuracy, fairness, and potential harm. Ultimately, it’s human oversight that safeguards responsible use.

Guiding Principles:
  • 1

    Choose a relatable, stimulating, and engaging background-reading task topic for students that is recent and localised. For instance, it is less likely Chatbots will know what the impact of ‘speed cameras’ has been in Nicosia in 2024.

  • 2

    Students in class or online are divided into groups and asked to discuss specific questions. This step adds an additional layer of specificity to the assignment task thus making it harder to get ‘alternative and acceptable’ output using AI chatbot prompting strategies.

  • 3

    Students compose a piece of writing referring to the background reading and some points made during the class discussions. They should also refer specifically to the area of Cyprus in which they live. Expressing relevant personal viewpoints should be required.

So, this assignment has specific conditions attached to it making it (1) impossible for AI chatbots to be used to write the entire assignment without considering the conditions; (2) making it harder to get ‘alternative output using AI chatbot prompting strategies that would fit the assignment conditions’.

EXAMPLE ENGL-100 (PARAGRAPH AND ESSAY WRITING)

The topic of the assigned writing task should be relatable, stimulating and engaging for students.

A lecturer should provide background reading material that should be incorporated into the essay/paragraph. This could be a recent article or two (recent – published after April 2023). The reading could be discussed in class.

In the assigned paragraph/essay, students may also be asked to include specific information that would be mentioned in class during discussions on the topic. Students should be asked to express relevant personal viewpoints.

Example
Topic: Road safety in Cyprus

Background reading material:

  1. Our View: Only so much traffic cameras can achieve, 2024, newspaper article, https://cyprus-mail.com/2024/01/23/our-view-only-so-much-traffic-cameras-can-achieve/
  2. New cameras ahead aimed at preventing accidents on roads, 2024, newspaper article, https://knews.kathimerini.com.cy/en/news/new-cameras-ahead-aimed-at-preventing-accidents-on-roads

Discussions:

Students in class are divided into groups and discuss the following questions:

  1. What is road safety like in Cyprus (or the area of Cyprus in which you live) nowadays?
  2. What are your suggestions for improving road safety in Cyprus (or the area of Cyprus in which you live)?
  3. Are speed cameras a promising way of improving road safety in Cyprus (or the area of Cyprus in which you live)?

The discussions (first in groups and then as a class discussion) should lead to several conclusions regarding the main subject. The conclusions should be recorded (e.g. on Padlet) and then uploaded in Moodle (or any other LMS) by the lecturer.

The assignment

Students are asked to compose one of the following pieces of writing. In their essays/paragraphs they are supposed to refer to the background reading and some points made during the class discussions. They should also refer specifically to the area of Cyprus in which they live and express relevant personal viewpoints.

  1. Illustration paragraph or essay: Ways of improving road safety in Cyprus.
  2. Argumentative essay: The introduction of speed cameras will (not) increase road safety in Cyprus.

Remember to always check AI outputs thoroughly, as human oversight lowers AI risk. For more information, contact AILC.