Creating Meaningful Homework Assignments in the Age of AI and LLMs

Creating Meaningful Homework Assignments in the Age of AI and LLMs

Jeffrey D. Shaffer

One of my greatest joys as a university educator is helping students learn to improve themselves and encouraging them to take ownership, at least in part, of their own education. Much of my role has been simply to support them and gently push them forward, but language (like any other skill) is learned through steady experience and effort. Because of this, I want my students to spend time working with English — reading, writing, and thinking in English — not only in class, but at home and out in the world.

However, the sudden rise of highly capable LLMs (Large Language Models such as ChatGPT) has made this almost impossible to do outside of the classroom. Homework assignments have lost much of their value as an LLM can translate a text, answer comprehension questions, fill in vocabulary exercises, and even write complete essays. A clever student can also use it to transcribe a listening task and then have it answer written questions without using English at all. Sadly, because students can simply use an LLM to complete their homework assignments, they don’t have to practice using (and improving) their language skills.

So, what should we educators do? What CAN we do?

I believe that the answer comes down to rethinking the “purpose” of assignments. My own purpose for giving homework to my students has always been to encourage them to learn through engagement. Unfortunately, many people still think that the purpose of assignments is to “get a good grade” or “pass the class”. It is possible that some or most of my students believe the latter, but that never worried me very much as they still had to fulfill MY intended purpose (learning through engagement) to reach their purpose (get a good grade). However, with LLMs, students no longer need to do their homework themselves in order to get a good grade; they can let the AI do the work for them, and thus, the old purpose of doing homework to “pass the class” is effectively gone.

Without a clear or meaningful purpose, interest and effort tend to disappear, and so I have been in search of a way to bring new purpose to my class assignments to encourage my students to complete them by hand. What I have begun to do is to include these two elements in all of my class assignments: forced skill-building goals and forced LLM friction.

FORCED SKILL-BUILDING GOALS
Where my original purpose of giving homework assignments was to help students build their skills through active engagement, I can no longer trust that all my students will have done it by hand. But I still want my students to feel the need to improve their skills. So, I start by considering which skills I think are most important for that class (writing, for example) and build a forced need for my students to improve that skill. For example, in my writing-focused classes, I now give students in-class hand-written exams. I let them know about the essay-based tests (mid-term and final) on the first day of class and encourage them to practice their writing each week, in-class and at home, thus giving them a very clear reason to practice — to get a good grade. Additionally, I take away the need to get a “good grade” on written homework by giving them full points if the homework is turned in on time, regardless of contents or mistakes. Thus, with the need to practice their writing skills for exams and no need to worry about making a good grade on homework assignments, students are encouraged to try the homework themselves — they cannot fail and they can only benefit by doing it themselves. In fact, using an LLM to complete an assignment will likely hurt them as other students who improved their skills will do better on the exams.

Homework once again can be used as a tool for them to improve their abilities through engagement, not just a pointless activity that an LLM can do to help them “get a good grade”.

FORCED LLM FRICTION
Another method I have found for encouraging students to complete assignments on their own is to purposely create friction to using an LLM. I try to plan assignments that it would be MORE work to use an LLM than to simply do it themselves. Humans being what we are, we often will choose the path of least resistance, especially if a grade is on the line!

For example, in one of my classes, I have students write a short story for homework (of about 250 words) about a picture I show them in class. Spelling and grammar mistakes are OK, they are guaranteed to get full marks if they turn it in on time, but the story has to be written BY HAND. To use an LLM, a student would first have to write a lengthy prompt describing the picture in detail and explain the type of output they need (a lot of work), and then they would still have to rewrite the entire story by hand (forcing them to focus on reading, spelling, and handwriting anyway). Thus, by introducing forced friction to using an LLM, especially where there is no danger (no friction) of getting a bad score because of mistakes, encourages students to take the easier path — just do it themselves.

The same idea also applies to shorter listening assignments. As long as the homework receives full marks for turning it in on time (low friction against the fear of poor ability) and the exams including a listening element (clear purpose for trying), the hassle of downloading the audio, sending it to an AI to transcribe it, then upload pictures of the homework questions just isn’t worth it. It’s just easier and more beneficial for students to do it themselves.

CONCLUSION
I do wish we could go back to the days before LLMs where I could give written assignments and essays for homework, as real, deep engagement creates real ability. But under the current conditions, at least I am able to find ways to encourage my students to make an effort — based on clear goals (build skills to get a good grade on in-class exams) and real deterrents to using LLMs (using an LLM would be harder and bring zero benefit).

I wish it were easier to instill within my students a deep and personal interest in learning and using English in their daily lives — so much of history and of the world today is accessible only through that door. In the least, I hope to encourage them, through external needs if necessary, to take at least a few steps closer.