Rethinking Assessment in the Age of AI: A Practical Resource for Faculty

by Scott Seagle | Oct 27, 2026 | AI, Assessment, Blog, Student Success, Teaching & Learning Tip

Teaching & Learning Tip

By Scott Seagle

Without question, GenAI has redrawn the boundaries of academic assessment. When a student can produce a “competent” essay in minutes, the traditional writing assignment raises uncomfortable questions, not only about student integrity, but also about what we were measuring in the first place.

Show Your Work: Assessment in the Age of AI (2026), by Kevin Yee, Laurie Uttich, Elizabeth Giltner, and Anastasia Bojanowski, address those questions directly. Rather than staking out a position on whether AI belongs in the classroom, the book offers something more useful: a flexible framework that meets faculty where they are.

Coulter Faculty Commons' Teaching & Learning Tip

The authors organize their guidance around three approaches. The first helps faculty integrate AI deliberately as a learning tool, making the collaboration itself part of the assignment. Examples include using AI to generate ideas for a project, critique a draft, compare alternative solutions, or support research and revision while requiring students to document and evaluate the AI’s contributions. The second offers strategies for designing work that students complete without AI; not by prohibition alone, but by building assignments where the human process is visible and essential. Examples include scaffolded projects with checkpoint submissions, annotated notes and research logs, in-class writing activities, and drafts that reveal the evolution of a student’s thinking over time. The third identifies alternative assessment formats that sidestep AI’s capabilities altogether, emphasizing skills that are harder to automate: oral defense, real-time problem solving, and reflective practice.

The authors outline three approaches to AI in coursework:

1. Integrate AI as a learning tool. Make the collaboration part of the assignment, such as using AI to brainstorm, critique drafts, compare solutions, or support research, while requiring students to document and evaluate what the AI contributes.

2. Design work completed without AI. Rather than relying on prohibition, build assignments that make the human process visible and essential, such as scaffolded projects with checkpoints, annotated notes and research logs, in-class writing, and drafts that show how a student’s thinking evolves.

3. Use alternative assessments. Choose formats that emphasize skills harder to automate, such as oral defenses, real-time problem solving, and reflective practice.

Across all three approaches, the book provides more than 50 concrete strategies that faculty can adapt to their own disciplines and course contexts. The emphasis throughout is on building the skills that matter most – critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, and ethical reasoning – regardless of which approach a given instructor chooses.

One of the book’s more useful features is that it requires no particular stance on AI. Faculty who find generative tools genuinely valuable in their fields, those who have serious reservations, and those still working out their position will all find relevant material here.

Show Your Work is available under a Creative Commons license, making it freely accessible. For faculty navigating one of the more consequential shifts in higher education in recent memory, it is a practical and timely starting point.

Bringing America’s Story into Your Classroom

by Scott Seagle | Sep 25, 2026 | Blog, Course Materials, Discussions, Other Resources

By Scott Seagle

On July 4, 2026, the United States of America marked 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a milestone to reflect on our past, honor those who shaped our nation, and envision the future we want to build.

The Foundations of American Democracy requirement is an invitation to do some of the most meaningful work in undergraduate education: helping students read carefully, think historically, and engage critically with the country’s foundational promises and its unfinished business.

Close up of the left hand of the statue of liberty.

The ideas represented in these documents reflect ongoing questions that have shaped, and continue to shape, our American republic. Whether you’re teaching history, political science, English, sociology, or a first-year seminar, the primary sources at the heart of this requirement offer rich material for inquiry.

The Foundations of American Democracy documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, are not just artifacts to be read once and summarized. They reward close, repeated engagement. Consider building assignments around them in a few ways:

Comparative analysis: Students trace a single concept – liberty, representation, equality – across multiple documents from different eras. This surfaces the tensions and evolution that the requirement’s “more perfect union” framework is designed to illuminate.

Rhetorical close reading: Students analyze how a founding-era author constructs an argument, its appeals, assumptions, and silences, alongside a later document responding to or challenging those same premises.

Review the resources on the Hunter Library’s research guide and reach out to the CFC and your subject librarian. We’d love to be part of how you bring that work to life.

Start the Semester with an AI Conversation

by Scott Seagle | Jul 30, 2026 | AI, Blog, Student Success, Teaching & Learning Tip

Canvas Course of a module with the name "AI Course Ethics Module"; Old fashioned typewriter with a piece of paper displaying "AI Ethics".

August Teaching & Learning Tip

Wondering how to start a conversation about AI with your students this semester? You don’t have to open that conversation cold. The Coulter Faculty Commons has created a ready-to-import Canvas module designed to help students think critically about using AI ethically in their coursework and to give instructors an easy way to set clear expectations from day one.

The module contains:

Content built around one goal: helping students understand why ethical AI use matters, not just what the rules are
Pre-built, customizable content to create a Course AI Ethics Agreement. You can adapt the pages, activities, or framing to match your own course policies and teaching style
Step-by-step instructions and guidance

Whether your policy is “AI-free,” “AI-assisted,” or somewhere in between, this module gives you a flexible starting point to communicate it clearly and to help students engage with the why behind it.

Ready to get the conversation started? Import the module into your Canvas course and review the unpublished instructor pages to begin. Reach out to the CFC with any questions…we’re happy to help you tailor it to your course.

For step-by-step instructions, review Importing a Resource from Canvas Commons. 

Everyday Accessibility

by Scott Seagle | Jul 30, 2026 | Accessibility, Blog, Course Materials

Features built for people with disabilities have a funny habit of becoming everyone’s favorite features. Take captions, for instance. I will absolutely binge an entire season of Ted Lasso with captions on, not because I’m hard of hearing, but because I refuse to miss a single pun. Originally, captions were designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. Now they’re the unofficial house style for anyone watching TV in a quiet room, a loud gym, or a public space where narrating one of Ted’s dad jokes out loud might raise questions.

Or take talking to your phone. Every time you ask Siri to set a timer instead of typing it in like some kind of neanderthal, you’re using tech that was originally built for people with mobility disabilities as an alternative to keyboards and pointing devices. Turns out “hands-free” appeals to more than just accessibility; it also appeals to people whose hands are full of groceries, toddlers, or kittens.

close up of white cat paw touching black computer mouse

To me the pattern is becoming clear: design for the people who need it most, and it ends up serving everyone. North Carolina State University educators originally defined Universal Design as ”a design concept that recognizes, respects, values and attempts to accommodate the broadest possible spectrum of human ability in the design of all products, environments and information systems.” The original Seven Principles of Universal Design were developed by NCSU educators for physical spaces. These principles were later adapted for use in education and are now known as Universal Design for Learning (UDL). So, what does this mean for your Canvas course site?

Think of digital accessibility like elevators and curb cuts. They were built with specific needs in mind, but now benefit parents with strollers, travelers with rolling suitcases, and anyone who’s ever been grateful not to haul a box up a flight of stairs. Accessible course materials work the same way: they don’t just support students with disabilities, they give all learners more flexible, inclusive ways to engage with your content.

Here’s a simple place to start: use clear headings and structured layouts when building pages in Canvas. Headings and structure help screen readers navigate your content, and they also might help every student skim for what they need before a deadline (you know we’ve all been there).

Prioritizing digital accessibility isn’t just about meeting legal standards and institutional policy, though it does that too. It’s a statement about equity, academic excellence, and student success. It’s proactive inclusion that raises the bar for everyone.

And practically speaking? Removing barriers tends to make things faster and smoother for all users.
Accessible design isn’t a detour from good design. It usually is good design.

Learn More

Visit the CFC Accessibility guide – Learn about the Basic Fours and download the Course Digital Accessibility Checklist to help you review commonly utilized digital resources, such as Canvas, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft PowerPoint for accessibility.

Introduction to Universal Design

UNC System Resource for Instructors: Foundational Generative AI Literacy and Responsible Use Course

by Scott Seagle | Jul 29, 2026 | AI, Blog, Teaching with Technology

The UNC System has created a Foundational Generative AI Literacy and Responsible Use Course. The purpose of this course is to assist students in developing critical understanding, evaluation, and use of generative AI. The course is intended as an optional and flexible resource that faculty may adopt, adapt, and customize to meet their needs.

The UNC System has created a Foundational Generative AI Literacy and Responsible Use Course. The purpose of this course is to assist students in developing critical understanding, evaluation, and use of generative AI. The course is intended as an optional and flexible resource that faculty may adopt, adapt, and customize to meet their needs. Outcomes include:

Learners will explain what generative AI (Gen AI) tools are and how they work.
Learners will identify the benefits and challenges of using Gen AI in various academic, professional, and creative settings.
Learners will critically evaluate Gen AI outputs for errors and biases.
Learners will demonstrate Gen AI literacy skills responsibly in a range of academic, professional, and creative settings.

If you are interested in reviewing the course’s modules and/or incorporating all or parts of the resource in your course, please reach out to the CFC via email cfc@wcu.edu.