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Process-Based Assessment

Process-based assessment grades how students arrived at their work, not just the final product. In an AI era where any text artifact can be generated in seconds, the process trail has become the most reliable evidence of authentic learning. The teachers here document specific redesigns that survive AI access: drafts with timestamps, in-class writing days, oral defenses, structured peer review, and assignments built around classroom-specific reference points. This hub collects what actually works.

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Questions teachers actually ask, with answers distilled from real discussions.

What is process-based assessment?
Process-based assessment evaluates the work students produce along the way to a final deliverable: drafts, brainstorms, source notes, peer review records, oral check-ins, and version history. Some or all of those artifacts are graded alongside the final piece. The shift is from "did the student turn in something good" to "can the student show how they made it."
How do I redesign assignments for the AI era?
The redesigns that hold up here share three traits. They require process artifacts (drafts, version history, source notes). They include in-class components (timed writing, oral defense). And they ask for specifics that depend on what happened in your classroom (citing a specific discussion, applying a class-defined framework). General prompts get general AI answers, classroom-specific prompts do not.
Does process-based assessment take more time to grade?
Up front, yes, by 20 to 40 percent in the first year teachers report on this forum. Long term, no. Once the rubric stabilizes and students learn the rhythm of submission, grading time tends to drop because there are fewer integrity cases to investigate and fewer borderline submissions to second-guess.
How do I grade an oral defense?
A 5-to-7-minute conversation with a short rubric. Common rubric elements include: ability to summarize the main argument in their own words, ability to defend a single choice from the work, ability to respond to a follow-up question, and ability to explain the strongest counter-argument. The conversation is rarely the place a real author fails.
How does process-based assessment compare to AI detection?
Most experienced teachers here treat detection as a screening signal and process artifacts as the evidence base. A high detection score on a piece with no documented process is a different situation from a high detection score on a piece with daily drafts and an oral defense. Detection without process is brittle, process without detection is defensible.

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