IGNITE Redesigning assessment
How to Run the Assignment Audit and Redesign One Assignment
The free Audit scores one assignment against eight questions. This is the thinking behind it: the test it starts from, what AI can and can't do in your classroom, and the five steps that turn an assignment a chatbot can pass into one it can't.
The Test That Starts It
Take an assignment you're using this year. Paste the assignment instructions into any AI chatbot exactly as your students receive them. Read the output that comes back and ask yourself one question: would you give this full marks, or close to it? If you would, the assignment needs redesigning. Knowing this is the whole point of the exercise.
Many assignments fail this test the first time, including assignments that were excellent in 2022. They were designed against a different issue than we have today, so a low result says nothing about the teaching.
What AI Can and Can't Do in Your Classroom
| AI can do this easily | AI can't authentically do this |
|---|---|
| Write a polished five-paragraph essay on any text | Reference a class discussion from last Tuesday |
| Produce sophisticated vocabulary and varied syntax | Show a genuinely messy first draft with crossed-out ideas |
| Generate plausible-sounding textual evidence | Explain why a thesis changed between Draft 1 and Draft 2 |
| Mimic a student's established writing style | Write in real time, under a time constraint, while you watch |
| Create multiple versions of any essay on demand | Respond to specific peer feedback in the student's own voice |
| Pass most AI detection tools | Demonstrate growth across three visible, dated drafts |
Everything in the right-hand column is evidence you can design an assignment to collect.
The Five-Step Redesign
Once an assignment has failed the test, this is the procedure. It works on essays, research tasks, creative writing, and reading responses.
- Run the AI test
Paste the instructions in, read the response, and decide whether it would pass. If it would, carry on to Step 2.
- Map it against the four pillars
Ask four questions. Does the assignment collect evidence of the student's thinking process, not just the final text? Does any part of it happen in the classroom in front of you? Are the AI expectations clear enough that a student knows what's permitted? Does it build the student's understanding of what AI is good and bad at?
- Add the missing pillar
Most assignments fail on the first or the second pillar, because there's no process work or because everything happens at home. Work on the weakest pillar first. Missing process means adding stages: brainstorm, annotated draft, peer review, and reflection. Missing in-class cognition means adding a timed in-class write, an exit conversation, or an oral defence. Missing clarity means adding a permission label. Missing meta-literacy means asking students to evaluate an AI response to the same prompt.
- Add the spotlight sentence
In the final stage, every student identifies one sentence or idea in their work that only they could have written and explains why. It takes about thirty seconds per student, and it reveals more about authenticity than any detection software.
- Run the test again
Paste the redesigned assignment instructions back in. The AI chatbot response should now fail, because it can't supply the observed process, the in-class component, the personal specificity, or the declared AI interaction. If it still passes, return to Step 3.
Where It Fits in the Framework
The Audit is a diagnostic. It tells you which IGNITE level your assignment is currently asking for, which is often lower than the level you thought you'd set. The IGNITE Framework then gives you the vocabulary to say what you want instead, in words your department and students will recognise.
Questions Teachers Ask
How long does the Audit take?
About five minutes for one assignment, once you have the assignment in front of you. The redesign takes longer, but you'll usually find that one change carries most of the weight.
Do I have to redesign everything I teach?
No, and you shouldn't try to. Audit an ordinary assignment to find out where you stand, then redesign the one that worries you most first. Usually that's the major take-home essay. Fixing the weakest pillar on one task teaches you the move, and the move transfers to other assignments.
What if my assignment fails the test badly?
Most do, including good ones written before 2023, when AI use became mainstream. A task can be pedagogically sound and still be completable by a chatbot, because it was designed against a different issue. That's a design gap, not a judgement on the teaching or the intention of the assignment.
Is this only for essays?
The Audit procedure works on essays, research tasks, creative writing, and reading responses: anything where a student hands you a finished text they produced somewhere you didn't see them writing.
Ready When You Are
Eight questions, five minutes, and one assignment. All four files arrive as soon as you confirm.
Get the Free AuditRead the FrameworkDeveloped by George O'Toole: over 35 years in secondary English, Head of Department, Educational Technology Coach, Faculty of Education instructor. Meet George