Grading the Process, Not Just the Product: How to Assess Student Thinking in the AI Era

Let me be honest with you: the traditional essay is in trouble. When a student can generate a decent draft in thirty seconds using ChatGPT, the five-paragraph theme you assigned no longer tells you what the student can do. But here's the thing—that's actually an opportunity. What AI makes easy is producing text. What it can't replicate is the messy, nonlinear process of thinking through a problem, revising based on feedback, and developing an original argument. That's where our assessment needs to shift. Provenance-based assessment means you evaluate the trail of student thinking, not just the destination. Instead of collecting a final paper, ask students to submit their working documents—early drafts, notes from sources, revision histories, even failed attempts. I'm a fan of what I call the 'portfolio checkpoint': at three points during a major project, students submit a brief reflection on where they are, what they're stuck on, and what questions they're chasing. This does two things. First, it makes their invisible mental work visible so you can actually coach them through it. Second, it creates a provenance record—you can see the evolution of their thinking, which is far harder to fake than a polished final product. The practical part: start small. Pick one assignment this semester and build in a process component worth 30-40% of the grade. Require students to submit their first attempt with explicit mistakes—yes, intentional errors—alongside a memo explaining what they tried and what they're unsure about. Then give feedback on the thinking, not just the writing. When students know you'll reward genuine intellectual risk-taking over polished BS, they'll start taking those risks. That's the pedagogy AI can't automate. The honest challenge: this approach takes more time to assess. You're reading drafts, not just final papers. But here's the trade-off worth making: you're teaching students that learning is a process, that confusion is part of the deal, and that the work behind the grade matters. That's a lesson worth grading.