On AI and Assessment
- 3 minutes ago
- 2 min read
These two weeks I have spent much of my time reading through just over 600,000 words of student writing. Every June, exam marking time, I do this.
I have seen very little AI in these essays… except for one 'unfortunate' student, whose AI use was revealed by the fact that they quoted my own writing back at me but attributed it to a fictitious source the AI had hallucinated! There has been a lot said about students using AI, but today I wanted to write about MY use of AI as a lecturer and assessor.
Assessment is such an intense time. For hours I immerse myself in one mind after the next, seeing the same question answered so differently by each person… their unique interests, life experiences, their unique 'flavour' filtering through. A friend asked why I don't use AI to mark and save time and sanity. My answer is firm: never.
One of Paulo Freire's greatest insights is that education is always a dialogue, always a give and take. Whenever I teach, I am learning. And if you are not learning, I can guarantee your students are suffering. Because when we are also learning, our students feel valued: they share their thinking, they trust, they explore. As teachers we are pushed to curiosity, to humility, to excellence. Marking essays is part of that conversation. It is me learning about my students, about the topic, about myself.
As I read these thousands of words, I learn what skills my students are missing. I find social patterns - what is coming up as a concern (I have more essays on populism and English nationalism than ever before). I learn new ways of looking at an issue, and explore how someone can get from A to C jumping past B...
I am also aware of the hopes and work behind each sentence. Behind cramped paragraphs and fluid prose alike is a person who has taken the risk of showing me a piece of who they are. To see this is a great honour. And when I choose a mark, I am aware of its impact. How can such a task ever be given to a machine - a machine that cannot understand anxiety's effect on writing, or value a students' determination to write an essay on an old phone when their computer gave up the ghost!
In a time of AI we need more, not less, human assessment. Because assessment is never about the numbers. It is about the conversation that shapes both learner and teacher, the vulnerability of sharing our thinking, the courage and creativity that education demands. And, ultimately, assessment is about justice, and only humans can choose what we deem fair.
It is also about assessors becoming better humans, so we can teach better, be more humble, remember why teaching is art, vocation, and science. So I will always complain in June, because marking is exhausting and frustrating... but I take this honour seriously, and I am so proud of my students for their work and their courage.
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