Start With One Assignment, Not Your Entire Course
AI has exposed a challenge that may have existed long before generative AI: a completed assignment is not necessarily the same thing as evidence of learning. Rather than redesigning an entire course, faculty can begin with a single assignment and ask a simple question: What evidence of learning am I actually looking for? Small changes that make student thinking more visible can often have a surprisingly large impact.
Small Design Changes That Shift Everything
AI is creating pressure for change in higher education, but meaningful course evolution rarely starts with a complete redesign. More often, it begins with small, intentional design choices that make student thinking more visible. Reflection prompts, justification questions, and process checkpoints may seem minor, but they shift the focus from simply producing answers to developing judgment, reasoning, and deeper learning. In an AI-rich world, those small changes can make all the difference.
What Counts as Evidence of Learning?
AI is forcing a question that higher education has been able to avoid for a long time: What actually counts as evidence that learning happened? Because for years, many assignments have focused heavily on the final product: