Assess the chat, not just the essay
On AI-open tasks, the transcript is where the thinking lives. Ask for it, and grade the questions they asked.
Sep 9, 2026 · 1 min read
If a task is AI-open, the interesting evidence isn't the polished product; it's how the student steered. A transcript shows whether they interrogated, refined, and rejected, or pasted the task and took the first output. Making the chat a submitted artefact turns prompting from a private shortcut into an assessable skill. (Manning's prompt-literacy-sequence-designer skill treats prompting as exactly this kind of teachable genre.)
In practice
- Add one rubric line for the transcript: did the student push back, ask for alternatives, verify a claim, or change direction at least once?
- Showcase two anonymised transcripts side by side: one that steered, one that accepted. The difference teaches itself.
- Pairs with the disclosure norm (see "Ask how they used AI, not whether"): disclosure says what happened, the transcript shows it.
Quick takeaway: on open tasks, the conversation is the coursework.