A recent report from the education think-tank EDSK has sparked debate over the trustworthiness of coursework grades in the age of ChatGPT. According to the findings, it is exceedingly difficult to verify whether a student has produced the work they have submitted for coursework tasks. This calls into question the merits of coursework as an assessment method in comparison to written exams.
UK’s major exam boards have proposed an answer to these issues: completion of coursework in classes with direct supervision. However, to ensure that students develop a comprehensive range of skills, there needs to be a package of academic reforms. One such suggestion includes making the Extended Project Qualification – a dissertation-style project completed alongside A-Levels – compulsory. It provides students with the vital opportunity to hone their research and writing skills. Moreover, EDSK reports that introducing more coursework in the form of assessment could lead to lower accuracy and reliability of results, as well as an increased workload for teachers.
Jo Saxton, Chief Regulator of Ofqual, recently acknowledged the threat posed by ChatGPT AI systems, and advised schools to make students complete coursework under exam conditions. Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), has also expressed his opinion on the matter; he believes that exams should not be the only method of assessment and new measures should be introduced to evaluate analysis and critical thinking skills.
The Department for Education (DfE) has reassured schools that strict rules are in place to ensure that pupils’ work is their own and regular meetings are held to talk about the fair and effective running of examinations. There needs to be a blended mix of academic and vocational courses, with AI becoming a way to aid learning rather than something to be feared.
EDSK is a non-partisan education and skills think tank which takes a humanities-based approach to driving change in the education sector. Co-founded by former ministerial adviser Tom Richmond, the think tank promotes excellence and fairness in education and skills across the UK.
Tom Richmond is the former Department for Education adviser who is also the Director of EDSK. He is against expanding the use of coursework due to the emergence of ChatGPT, as it would cause widespread malpractice that could disrupt the fairness of students’ grades. Richmond believes that written exams should remain at the peak of the assessment system, but extra measures are needed to develop a range of skills.
