Teaching in the age of AI Means Getting Creative
At Santa Clara University this month, 32 students began a course called “Artificial Intelligence and Ethics” where the usual method of assessment — writing — would no be longer in use. The course is taught by Brian Green, who also serves as a director [of technology ethics] of the university’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, and in lieu of essays, he’ll be setting up one-on-one sessions with each student to hold ten-minute conversations. He said it doesn’t take any more time to evaluate that than to grade an essay.
“In that context, you really remove any possibility of text-generating software. And in talking to them, it really becomes all about whether they understand the material,” he said.
“The entire space has essentially become an arms race,” Green said, adding that anti-cheating technology remains in perpetual competition with the technology to circumvent it, as has been the case for years with plagiarism detectors like TurnItIn.
Brian Green, director, technology ethics, quoted by FiveThirtyEight.