Authentic assessments: why group presentations are a good assessment in the age of AI. Authentic assessments aim to reflect skills which are relevant to the workplace and the wider world. Oral presentation is one of the authentic assessments that can effectively test students’ knowledge and their understanding of a particular topic. We have designed a new group presentation assessment for a core biomedical science undergraduate module “Infection and Immunity” with almost 400 students, which has replaced a lengthy written report. We ask students to work in small groups (5-6 students per group) to research a particular topic and prepare an oral presentation then deliver it to their peers in a specific time. The rubric is designed to assess both the performance of the group (50%) as well as the performance of each student within the group (50%). Although students may use ChatGPT artificial intelligence to research the topic and produce the presentation slides, following each group’s presentation we assess the knowledge and understanding of each student within the group by asking questions linked to their presentations and sources of information. Moreover, students get the opportunity to develop their teamwork skills as well as their presentation and communication skills. The group presentation assessment is a summative assessment and weighs 50% of the overall module mark. Students are provided with all presentation assessment details in the module handbook before module starts. To ensure that students will enjoy working in groups and get positive experience, we ask them at the beginning of the semester, if they prefer to work with specific peers or if they prefer to be randomly assigned to groups and most students (63%) prefer working with specific peers, 24% prefer to be randomly assigned to groups while 14% would not mind either. We provide timetabled tutorial sessions where group members meet each other face to face to discuss their presentation and most importantly, they get ‘immediate’ feedback on their work from their tutors (including two expert tutors per each tutorial session with maximum 10 groups). Students find the timetabled tutorial sessions very useful hence, it is hard for many of them to meet due to work, caring responsibilities, etc. At the end of each tutorial session, students are asked to complete group meeting minutes including what they have discussed/agreed and any other business. The meeting minutes will be signed by the tutor then group leader needs to upload it to group’s discussion board. There is a specific discussion board for each group and students are asked to also use the discussion board to communicate to the members of the group, exchange files, share articles, etc. The presentations are marked by two academic tutors and although many contact hours are required to mark presentations for this cohort, much less time for marking is required than the old style written reports and the students subsequently receive feedback more quickly. To motivate students, we provide an award for the best group presentation (£15 Amazon voucher for each student within the winner group). On the presentation day, students evaluate the presentations and vote for best presentation group based on group members’ communication skills, the design of presentation slides and group’s answer to questions. On the presentation day, students are asked to stay all day and breaks and refreshments are provided. It is like a conference day where students listen to each other’s presentations and contribute to the discussion/questions after the presentation, moreover, evaluating their peers’ presentations. Conclusion: We strongly believe that our new group presentation assessment will overcome the implications of AI on learning and academic integrity and it provides many benefits to students such as developing research skills, improving time management skills, enhancing communication skills and most importantly, it improves students’ teamwork skills – all of which contribute to boosting students’ employability skills and prepare them for the future. |