From "robust against AI" towards «robust and constructive with AI»

Abstract

The rapid development of generative AI (GenAI) during the last couple of years has brought several challenges for the education sector, both regarding what students should learn and how it should be taught and assessed. Both from the perspective of personal growth and the future job market, there is a need both to assess what students are able to do without AI, and what they can do with AI. The course IT1001 at NTNU uses self-paced mastery learning with a series of modules, where each student can choose their own pace and ambition level. The course has been received positively by students. The assessment aims, on the one hand, to be robust against AI through a series of supervised tests throughout the semester. On the other hand, the course also contains an individual programming project where it is highly relevant for the students to learn to use AI in a constructive way. The article presents the course design, current experiences with AI usage, and how we intend to change the course to achieve a more constructive use of AI. The addressed questions are (1) How have students used AI in the course so far? (2) How can the course be changed to achieve specific learning outcomes related to AI, with relevance for the student group? Towards the end, we discuss how similar approaches could be used by other courses where a balance between robustness against and constructiveness with AI would be needed.