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At the end of any semester, it is often time to reflect on what went well, what went less well, and what was unaddressed. Debriefing the class – whether informally, or through formal processes like teaching evaluations – is a time-honored way to get feedback required to effectively plan for your next semester/year.
AI can assist in this process by acting as a foil against your syllabus. By assigning an end-of-semester compare/contrast/evaluate assignment, your students can use AI to help reveal the lacunae in your syllabus. By having students use AI to generate practice test questions, you can uncover important insights about the content that may have been under explored.
Objective: Use AI to Help Identify Gaps in the Syllabus
The goal of this assignment is to have students reflect on the material they’ve learned and identify gaps in the syllabus that might have affected their ability to answer specific questions. This assignment provides a dual benefit: students get to critically engage with the content, and you, as the instructor, gain valuable feedback on potential areas for course improvement.
Assignment Instructions
- AI-Generated Test Questions: Ask your students to use any AI tool (such as ChatGPT or another assistant) to generate a list of 20–30 test questions related to the content of your course. Be sure to clarify that the questions should be appropriate for a university-level course like yours.
- Identify Gaps in Learning: Instruct students to select 5 questions from the AI-generated list that they feel they could not answer (or could not fully answer) because that topic was not adequately covered in your class. They should explain which specific topics or concepts were lacking or underexplored in the syllabus.
- Write a Reflection: For each of the 5 questions, students should write a brief reflection (1-2 paragraphs) explaining why they struggled with the question. They should include any specific topics that they felt were insufficiently addressed or completely absent from the course material.
Example Prompt
For example, you might provide students with a prompt like this for Microsoft Copilot: “Generate 25 test questions for a university-level course on evolutionary biology.” This prompt will produce a range of questions that students can then evaluate against the course material.
Benefits of the Assignment
This assignment not only provides students with an opportunity to reflect on their learning but also offers you, as the instructor, valuable insights into potential gaps in your syllabus. By seeing where students feel unprepared, you can make more informed decisions about what to emphasize or expand upon in future iterations of the course.
Closing Thoughts
By incorporating AI-generated questions into your course reflection process, you gain a unique perspective on where students struggled and how your course content might be improved. This exercise encourages critical thinking, enhances student engagement with the material, and helps you refine your syllabus for better learning outcomes. It also provides an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning experiences and identify areas where they can continue to grow.
Using AI in this way not only enriches the feedback process but also builds students’ awareness of how to interact with AI tools responsibly and thoughtfully. It’s a great opportunity to turn the AI challenge into a tool for reflection and course enhancement.
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