GRASP: Using Generative AI to Efficiently Provide Spaced, Elaborative, Interleaving Formative Assessments

(This project is cross-appointed between the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Arts.)

GRASP (Generative Retrieval And Spaced Practice) will use GenAI to empower faculty to efficiently create formative assessment questions to engage students in regular retrieval practice. These assessments can be tailored to any level of difficulty and span all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Questions will be ingrained with best practices, featuring descriptive feedback and prompts that promote elaborative rehearsal. A scheduler module will deliver additional formative assessments to students at research-determined intervals, leveraging the benefits of spaced learning and topic interleaving. These follow-up formative assessments will adapt to each individual student’s needs by offering more practice on the topics that they previously struggled with the most. Even when students are aware of best-practice study techniques, they often do not use them due to concerns including time/effort costs and not knowing how to implement them. GRASP will help reduce these barriers to engage more students in highly effective learning techniques.

Kayli Johnson, Associate Professor of Teaching, Chemistry, Faculty of Science
Simon Lolliot, Associate Professor of Teaching, Psychology, Faculty of Arts
Brett Gilley, Associate Professor of Teaching, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Faculty of Science
Steven Barnes, Professor of Teaching, Psychology, Faculty of Arts
Stephen Michaud, Sr. Manager, Learning Applications Integrations and Analytics, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT)
Will Engle, Strategist, Open Education Initiatives, CTLT
Noureddine Elouazizi, Sr. Strategist, Artificial Intelligence and Innovation in Learning Technology, Science Centre for Learning and Teaching (Skylight), Faculty of Science
Manuel Dias, Learning Design Consultant, CTLT