Writing a Lit Review: A Process-Based Assignment to Avoid Outsourcing to AI

After reading Real Intelligence: Teaching in the Era of Generative AI, which is free/open-access at the link, I have been redesigning my courses.

Below is a Literature Review activity and rubric I have designed for an advanced undergraduate research course. In the past, I have created a rubric that only examined the completed manuscript. This put all of the students’ apples into one basket, so to speak, and made the final score intimidating. The intimidation encourages cheating or outsourcing to AI.

What I’ve done instead is provide a process-based assignment, which asks students to show their work. I’m in the process myself of creating accompanying examples of how I research and write a lit review. I’ll share the videos here as they become available, and those videos will link back to this page.

Here is the assignment summary:

STEP	Artifact (max 25 pts ea.)	Pts
Brainstorming topic, exploring ideas: This is where you sit down with a blank document and free write what it is you understanding about a topic or problem, what questions you have, who you think will care about it, why you think it’s important.	Submit brainstorm note sheet showing all the topics you explored and what became of them. Include any rankings you performed or preliminary research you did. Circle the main topic/problem, and explain why it is important. Include any dialogue with AI you used (Each brainstorm can only be used once.)
Collecting information about your topic: This is where you collect books, articles, and book chapters from credible sources about your topic.	Share printed or PDF versions of all articles, book chapters, and books you have collected on your topic along with any rationale for how you determined relevance, credibility, or accuracy of the information. If you used AI to help you find articles, then share what questions you asked and how you made selections based on its responses. How did you find copies of the articles?
Building out your ideas using the information: This is where you read over the collected works and use it to correct, improve upon, and provide depth for your ideas from a).	Share marked up resources (PDFs) along with how you have interpreted their meaning, how they address your topic/problem, and how they fit together. In one sentence, explain what it all means (your thesis about the topic/problem/question).
Organizing it all into a review essay or presentation: This is where you construct the actual document or presentation using a-c.	Give a presentation or submit a written paper in APA format where you synthesize the information from your resources into a literature review.
	Grand Total	/100

And here is the rubric:

	25	20	15	10
Brainstorm Topic	Brainstorming notes are detailed and well organized demonstrating all ideas a student generated, including those that were rejected. Steps of the brainstorm along with any AI-engagement are included. Everything is labeled and easy to follow. Final topic is identified and rationale for choosing given.	Brainstorming notes are organized demonstrating many ideas. Steps of the brainstorm along with AI-engagement are included. Labels are included but the materials are difficult to follow. Final topic is identified and rationale for choosing it is given.	Brainstorming notes about the chosen topic and the rationale for selecting it are given. Steps of the process are included and labeled.	Brainstorming notes about the chosen topic are given along with relevant materials.
Collecting Information/ resources	Complete PDFs for all resources (6-10) are included. Students’ rationale for the selection of each resource is given, including how they determined the relevance, credibility, and accuracy of each resource. Any skillful engagement with AI is included.	Complete PDFs for all resources (3-5) are included. Students’ rationale for the selection of each resource is given, including how they determined the relevance, credibility, and accuracy of each resource. Any skillful engagement with AI is included.	References, screenshots, or photographs of resources are included along with detailed rationale for selecting them, including relevance, credibility, and accuracy.	References, screenshots, or photographs of resources are included along with some rationale for selecting them.
Synthesizing ideas with resources	PDFs are marked up by the student demonstrating sophisticated and close reading of the materials. An outline or rough draft connecting all of the resources to the topic is included. An all-encompassing thesis statement is given, which summarizes the goal of the review.	PDFs are marked up by the student. An outline or rough draft connecting all of the resources to the topic is included. A thesis statement that relates to the topic is given, but does not adequately connect the materials.	An outline or rough draft connecting all of the resources to the topic is included. A thesis statement that relates to the topic is given, but does not adequately connect the materials.	An outline or rough draft connecting all of the resources to the topic is included OR A thesis statement that relates to the topic is given, but does not adequately connect the materials.
Creation of artifact	Manuscript is written and follows APA style guidelines (7th Ed.). MS is well-organized, balanced, and flows well, communicating clearly the goals of the review and the arguments that follow. All academic resources are seamlessly integrated in a manner that is fair to the referenced authors. Student includes statement on how (if at all) AI tools were used, such as grammarly, citations, APA formatting, structure, etc.	Manuscript is written and follows APA style guidelines (7th Ed.). MS is well-organized, balanced, or flows well, communicating clearly the goals of the review and the arguments that follow. All academic resources are integrated. Student includes statement on how (if at all) AI tools were used, such as grammarly, citations, APA formatting, structure, etc.	Manuscript is written and follows APA style guidelines (7th Ed.) with minor errors. MS suffers from poor organization, balance, or flow. All academic resources are integrated. Student includes statement on how (if at all) AI tools were used, such as grammarly, citations, APA formatting, structure, etc.	Manuscript is submitted but does not follow APA formatting. References are included.