Webinar Recording-Redesigning Assessment for the Age of AI: A Practical Workshop with Susan Ray, PhD
Dr. Susan Ray and Dr. GP LeBourdais unpack practical ways to redesign AI-resilient assessments and to preserve meaningful student learning.
Do your assessments still measure what you intend them to? AI has changed what students can produce and what their work portrays. We recognise how difficult it is to shift from static final products to process-oriented tasks. This workshop was organized to provide ready-to-implement alternative assessment options for higher-ed teachers.
Watch Susan Ray, PhD, English professor and AAC&U AI Institute consultant, and GP LeBourdais, PhD, Edvisor’s Director of Product & Learning, in this hands-on workshop about assessment redesign.
Let's examine some real assignments, identify where learning becomes invisible, and then rebuild them around your course goals and teaching style.
Redesigning Assessment for the Age of AI: A Practical Workshop with Susan Ray, PhD
Useful Takeaways From the Conversation
- Redesign for visible thinking—not invisible policing. Ask students to show their decisions, drafts, revisions and reasoning instead of relying on AI detectors.
- Start with one vulnerable assignment. A small, focused redesign is more realistic than rebuilding an entire course before the next semester.
- Tell students exactly what AI use is allowed. Clear, assignment-specific guidance reduces confusion, accidental misconduct and inconsistent enforcement.
- Do not let assessment redesign multiply faculty workload. Add a few high-value checkpoints rather than creating more submissions that all require extensive grading.
- Prepare students for responsible workplace use. The goal is not simply to prevent AI use, but to teach students when to use it, question it and work without it.
“Half of the paper’s grade is based on the process; making the student’s learning visible, not just evaluating the final essay.”
— Susan Ray
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are Some Platforms for Creating Engaging Digital Assessments?
Interactive assessment tools can make learning more engaging through live participation, formative feedback and gamified activities to demonstrate student understanding in different ways.
Edvisor brings these experiences together in a more learning-focused format. In its Fall 2025 survey, 83% of students reported higher engagement. Features such as AI-assisted reading, oral defense and grade recovery make assessments more interactive.
How Can Higher Education Assessments Be Redesigned to Make Student Thinking More Visible in the Age of AI?
Design assessments around the learning process by using staged submissions and in-class problem-solving so instructors can see how students develop their ideas. Make tasks more authentic by connecting them to personal experiences and specific contexts that generic AI responses cannot easily reproduce.
What Are the Six Assessment Redesign Pivotal Strategies?
When adapting assessments, it's important to keep the following in mind:
- Mixed Assessments
- Authentic Tasks
- Academic Integrity
- AI Partnership
- Human Skills
- Continuous Feedback
What Makes an Assessment Authentic?
An authentic assessment asks students to use what they have learned to complete a practical, real-life task, not just memorize information for a test.
