What's happening this week
More and more instructors are telling us that the homework assignment, as it's existed for decades, is broken. AI is the biggest driver, and instructors around the world are scrambling to rethink assessment. We're in a transitional period — but there are things we can do today to build assessment that works even when students have AI at their fingertips.
That brings me to a great post Kerry Back shared on LinkedIn last week . Kerry has decided to flip his classroom this fall. The idea? Teach students before class, and assess them in the classroom.
For the pre-class work, Kerry is leaning on AI in two ways. He built a small app that lets an instructor upload a slide deck, chat with AI to shape the narration line by line, and then generate the audio with an ElevenLabs cloned voice — turning a deck into a short lecture video far faster than recording himself. He's also wrapping Matt Pocock's "teach" skill into a course-specific version students can use to have AI walk them through the material one-on-one. Class time then becomes a quiz on that material, followed by an in-depth discussion.
What you can do today
If you've been asking yourself what to do about assessment and this approach feels like something that could work for you, there are some great resources I recommend taking a look at below.
If this all feels like a lot of work for the fall semester, I have some good news: Blended Teaching now allows for exactly this. You can upload your own slides and lecture recordings, and the platform will create notes, quizzes, and in-class activities for you all in one platform. We call it courseware, and if you'd like to use it this fall, book a time to chat with us here
Worth a look
A concrete playbook for redesigning your course around AI-driven pre-class work, including the failure modes that trip most instructors up.
Matt Pocock — "Learn Anything With My /teach Skill"
Try the AI tutor Kerry is putting in front of his students — pick any topic and get a custom lesson in minutes.
The clearest case yet that AI didn't break the classroom — it just exposed what was never supposed to be there.
Sam