Rob Gibson presented at the Quality Matters (QM) Quality in Action conference. Gibson is Dean of Instructional Design and Technology at WSU. The title of their session was “Ensuring Academic Integrity & Quality Course Design in the Age of AI.” Gibson asked: given the state of AI, how confident are you that your course still addresses QM standards? That’s a tough question! Gibson shared several quotes including one from Tricia Bertram Gallant, author of “Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI,” expressed concern for assessment in asynchronous courses in the era of AI. Gibson shared the definition of agentic AI:
Agentic refers to someone or something capable of achieving outcomes independently (“functioning like an agent”) or possessing such ability, means, of power (“having agency”).
Gibson shared how Andrew Maynard from Arizona State University used agentic AI to design a course based on a single prompt. In a video Gibson shared, an instructor from Sydney shared AI-empowered tools students can use to answer questions and create reports. QuizMate can answer questions on a screen and another plugin can use literature to write (Scholar AI). In another video, an agent opened a series of assignments and completed them autonomously. Kath Ellis from Western Sydney University supports changes in assessments instead of more AI detection. When polled, most attendees stated that we need to prepare for AI and academic integrity by “diversify assessment types” and “promote authentic assessments.” Gibson suggested oral defenses & socratic seminars, debates, collaborative problem solving, real-time tasks, and multimodal assignments. This session was packed with thought-provoking quotes and ideas.
