Tom Cotton & Rosy Borland
Refining assessment instructions
Use Val personas to strengthen assessment instructions for clarity and completeness.
How to use the 'chk.instructions' persona in Val to generate a detailed report and suggested rewrite of your existing assessment instructions
Refining assessment instructions for clarity can be a time-consuming process. This approach uses a specialised AI persona to act as a 'subeditor' for your existing instructions, providing a detailed analysis, specific suggestions, and a complete rewrite for you to review. It offers a way to get 'fresh eyes' on your work, helping to identify potential ambiguities and improve the student experience. You remain in control, choosing which suggestions to adopt to enhance your original document.
00:54Select the 'chk.instructions' persona. In Val, navigate to 'Personas' and search forchk.instructionsto begin a new chat.01:14Start the report generation process. Click the 'Get a Report' suggested prompt to initiate the intake process.01:27Provide the course level and year. When prompted, type the level (e.g., UG for undergraduate) and year level of the course (e.g., 'UG Year 2').01:45Upload the assessment rubric, if available. Drag and drop your rubric file (.docx or .pdf) into the message box. If you don't have one, reply 'none'.02:15Indicate if there are other related documents. If you have supplementary documents like worksheets or briefs, upload them. Otherwise, reply 'none'.02:22Paste your complete assessment instructions. Copy the full text of your assessment instructions from your source (e.g., Canvas) and paste it directly into the message box.04:12Copy the generated report to a word processor for review. Once Val generates the full report, manually select all the text and use your keyboard to copy (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C) and paste it into a document (e.g., MS Word) for easier management and review.
Tool | The Beta version uses Val, RMIT's Virtual Assistant for Learning. |
|---|---|
AI Persona | The specific persona used is 'chk.instructions'. |
Power Tip | It is easier to manage the report in a word processor like MS Word rather than directly in Val; use keyboard copy/paste shortcuts to keep all tables and formatting intact. |
Process | The persona guides you through a multi-step intake process to gather context before generating its analysis and rewrite. |
Related skills
- Apply human judgement to validate AI outputs — The AI generates suggestions and a rewrite, but the educator must use their professional judgement to decide which changes are appropriate and effective.
- Brainstorm ideas and generate drafts — The tool generates a complete 'suggested rewrite', providing an alternative draft that can help refine the original assessment instructions.
- Locate and manage supported GenAI tools — This activity requires locating and activating a specific, purpose-built persona within an institutionally supported AI platform.
- Refine and iterate prompts — The process involves a guided, multi-turn conversation where you provide specific information to refine the AI's understanding and shape its final output.