Exams give students the opportunity to show that they have achieved the course’s learning goals and that they can present the knowledge, skills and competences they acquired during the course. For home exams and other exams which are not on-campus school exams, students can potentially use AI (for example chatbots like Copilot and ChatGPT). The potential challenges and opportunities that would result from using chatbots varies from discipline to discipline and course to course.

On this page you’ll find inspiration about how to create exam questions that are not easily solved by AI chatbots.

Norsk versjon: Eksamen og kunstig intelligens - for faglærar

As an employee at NTNU you are not allowed to exchange data with American technology companies that do not have a data agreement with NTNU. This is due to GDPR issues and the EU ruling of Schrems II. This applies chatbots and ChatGPT. This means that all use of these programmes must be on your own initiative, and we encourage caution with what information you provide.

Read the rector's declaration on the use of AI in exams: Endring av rektorvedtak og tekst knyttet til bruk av kunstig intelligens og juks på eksamen (Norwegian)

Creating exam questions

Chatbot technology is constantly evolving as is their ability to answer questions and produce reflections on complex problems. However, there are forms of “thinking” which AI is not very good at. It is near impossible to prevented students using chatbots if they want, but exams can be created to encourage students to have to use their own skills and knowledge. In the longer term, it is likely that chatbots can be integrated as a tool in teaching and learning and for some exams.

As an employee at NTNU, you are not allowed to exchange data with American technology companies that do not have an agreement with the data processor. This is in accordance with GDPR and EU rulings. This applies to ChatGPT. Any use of ChatGPT and unlicensed chatbots is by your own initiative, and we encourage caution with what information you provide.

Tips for creating exam questions and exercises

Here you will find tips for creating exam questions and exercises which are not easily answered by chatbots:

Questions which require thorough knowledge of the specific syllabus and literature.Chatbots most likely do not know your syllabus literature so questions which require an in-depth knowledge about syllabus (and which require correct references) make it difficult – and ineffective – to use chatbots. This applies especially to newer Scandinavian literature.

• Exercises and taks with variation in them. Tasks consisting of various formats of information, and difference types of sources and objects for analysis etc. Chatbots are best at gathering and reproducing text, so diverse media and sources with for example audio, video, pictures and graphs can be harder for chatbots to correctly process.
• Questions based on students’ experience and personal reasoning. By making the students reflect on specific instances or work experience they are enabled to apply and show their knowledge, skills and competences.
• Use a case study. Make an unknown case study the basis of the task. (See the video “5 tips til hjemmeeksamen for undervisere” (English subtitle available) under Resources)
• Allow for answers in different formats. Since the chatbots are best at generating text, you could ask the student answer question in other ways than text, for example with audio or video formats.
• Expect complex, nuanced answers. Require usage of specific, technical and professional language and terminology.Meta reflection as part of the exam.As part of the assessment make the students reflect on their writing process, results and answers. These reflections could be about their data and source gathering, composition of the answer/text, or content. The students can reflect on what could have been included and why it was not included, alternative approaches, what one realized during the process etc. Meta reflection can be submitted as a text but could be submitted as an audio or video file. NB! Audio or video is only possible for exams where the students are not anonymous. Ask your programme advisor if in doubt.

In Inspera Assessment

Inspera Assessment has a variety of question types which makes a diverse exam set possible. you can also upload photos and audio files as a part of the question .

Contact the Examinations office on NTNU Hjelp if you need help or advice.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism means that a person uses text or content that someone else has created and pretends that they have written or created it themselves. An example of plagiarism is taking material that someone else has created and using it without citing the source. Another form of cheating is including quotations from sources on the internet, other people's assignments, textbooks, or articles, without clearly indicating where the quotations or content have been taken from. The same applies if a person artificial intelligence tools (Copilot, ChatGPT or similar) without citing it. You can read more about using and citing sources on the following page: https://i.ntnu.no/academic-writing/using-and-citing-sources.

As for now (March 2024), the plagiarism controll NTNU uses, Ouriginal, cannot spot the usage of chatbots.

Here you can read more about plagiarism controll at NTNU: Plagiarism control at NTNU - Kunnskapsbasen - NTNU

Resources

Eksamen og vurdering - kurs og opplæring for ansatte - Kunnskapsbasen - NTNU

5 tips til hjemmeeksamen for undervisere - YouTube