When teachers are asked what we do, we say “I teach”; we never say “I give exams”. Yet, as Paola Roldán observes, assessment keeps us awake as much or more than the act of teaching itself. This disconnect—between the creative and artisanal moment of the classroom and what we experience as the “ordeal” of the exam—becomes especially complex in times of generative artificial intelligence.
But now this ordeal takes on a new dimension: what value does an exam have when an AI application can solve it in seconds? This question goes to the heart of our profession and forces us to rethink everything.
Questions We Cannot Put Off
How do we certify knowledge when software can solve the task we request in an almost professional manner? What are we actually certifying? What are the new challenges we face as educators and what mechanisms are necessary to foster assessments that are part of learning, that promote critical thinking and analysis? What are the institutional challenges in certifying knowledge?
Assessing in this context means asking not only “what does each student know”, but also “how do they come to know it”, “what decisions do they make”, “how do they engage with information” and “what meaning do they give it”. Assessment cannot be understood as an audit of what was produced, but rather as a conversation about what was thought, a mapping of the student’s cognitive and emotional journey.
This is why the emergence of AI forces us to rethink assessment not as a final moment of verification, but as a continuous process integrated into learning. The formative assessments we always talk about and rarely practice gain relevance, allowing students to reflect on their own process of knowledge construction and develop metacognition about their learning strategies.
Strategies for Assessing What Is Specifically Human
AIs operate on public databases and general statistical patterns. Therefore, truly resistant questions are those deeply anchored in the classroom experience:
- Exclusive course materials: Include excerpts from readings worked on in class, transcripts of debates, or examples analyzed collectively. An AI did not have access to those specific discussions.
- Interpretation of unique visual representations: Graphs, diagrams, or images of experiments conducted by the students themselves require a contextualized reading that only they can provide.
- Critical judgment with explicit criteria: Instead of asking “what is X?”, ask “which argument is more solid regarding X, and why?”. All options should be plausible and differentiate by conceptual nuances.
- Transfer to authentic contexts: Design coherent scenarios where students must adapt concepts to novel situations. This assesses deep understanding, not reproduction.
Putting It Into Practice with Educativa
Our LMS offers specific tools to materialize these ideas:
- “Select options” format: Allows you to link multimedia resources from the classroom and add formative feedback.
- “Fill in the blanks” format: Ideal for analyzing contextualized cases with specific options.
- “Match concepts” format: Perfect for mapping networks of ideas worked on collectively.
- Tags and units: Filter questions by type of thinking (analysis, critical judgment, transfer).
NEW ITEM TYPE:
- “Ordering/Sequence” format: Allows you to create questions where students must order options in a valid sequence. Ideal for assessing understanding of processes, chronologies worked on in class, or conceptual hierarchies specific to the course.
Technical reminder
Once a question is used in assessment with submissions, it cannot be modified. Test new designs in formative assessments before using them in credited instances.
Toward Transformative Assessment
In this context, self-assessments take on a leading role. Not as mere review questionnaires at the end of the process, but as integrated devices that accompany learning. When a student reflects on “what part of this problem was most challenging for me and why?”, they are developing a competence that no AI can replicate: metacognition about their own knowledge construction process.
The key is to design self-assessments that are true spaces for thinking, where students can map their cognitive and emotional journey.
If you have questions, our support team is available to help you at soporte@educativa.com.