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Higher Education
As AI tools become a staple in students’ academic toolkits, many educators are confronting a new challenge: assignments that once felt effective are suddenly easy to shortcut. The instinct might be to ban or block—but what if that’s the wrong question?
In a recent webinar, Dr. Randy Ziegenfuss, Chair of Education Department and Professor of Practice at Moravian University, urged higher ed faculty to stop asking how to catch students using AI and start asking something more powerful: How do we design assignments that require a heartbeat?
Here’s how he’s thinking about AI, assessment, and transformation and how you can rethink your own approach for today’s learners.
Instead of treating AI as a threat, Dr. Ziegenfuss sees it as a design prompt — a catalyst for reimagining how we assess learning.
He points to a recent MIT study that raised concerns about AI short-circuiting learning. But rather than fueling panic, Dr. Ziegenfuss uses this to reinforce a familiar truth: when students don’t struggle, they don’t grow. If we outsource the struggle, we lose the learning.
To guide his own redesign process, Dr. Ziegenfuss developed the SPARK Framework, a human-centered blueprint for creating assignments that go beyond surface learning and resist easy automation.
What is SPARK?
S = Situated
Assignments rooted in real-world context and lived experience.
P = Process as Pedagogy
Focus on the messy middle, not just the final product.
A = Authentic Purpose and Audience
Work that’s made for someone who genuinely cares.
R = Relational
Build in dialogue, metacognition, and feedback loops.
K = Kinetic
Allow for diverse media outputs beyond plain text.
Dr. Ziegenfuss shared an assignment from a freshman education course: a critical artifact analysis. Initially, the task followed a familiar formula: select an artifact from a school placement, apply critical pedagogy concepts, and submit a written analysis. It was structured, clear … and easily completed by AI.
Using SPARK, the assignment was reimagined to center student voice, lived experience, and process:
Dr.,Ziegenfuss advocates for using AI as a co-learner, not a shortcut. When prompted well, AI can help students:
He offers example prompts that turn AI into a partner in learning, not a proxy for it. For instance:
Dr. Ziegenfuss acknowledges that this work is both technical and emotional. It asks educators to rethink practices that may have worked for years, and to confront the grief of letting go.
But the good news? You don’t have to do it all at once, he said. “Start small. Redesign one assignment. Invite AI to the table as a thought partner. Get curious.”
To help, he offers a design checklist:
AI didn’t break higher ed, it revealed the cracks. For those ready to rethink, redesign, and rehumanize learning, the SPARK framework offers a starting point. It’s not just about keeping up with technology. It’s about honoring the kind of learning only humans can do.
