01
Ask about the student’s own work
A question built from a specific claim in the student’s paper cannot be prepared for in advance from a generic bank.
Authentic assessment
Assess the student, not just the submission.
Authentic assessment asks students to do work that resembles how the knowledge is used, and to show their thinking while they do it. Generative AI has made that harder to skip. A polished submission no longer tells you who understood it, so the evidence has to come from somewhere else: a conversation, a decision, a performance.
What it is
Evidence of understanding, gathered where it is visible.
The term goes back to the late 1980s, when educators such as Grant Wiggins argued that tests should resemble the tasks a practitioner actually faces. The idea is older than any chatbot. What changed is the cost of producing a convincing written answer, which is now close to zero.
That does not make writing assignments obsolete. It changes what a written assignment can prove on its own. If the paper can be produced without understanding, the instructor needs a second source of evidence that cannot be produced the same way.
Comparing the evidence
What each method shows, and what it leaves open.
| Method | What it shows | What it leaves open |
|---|---|---|
| A submitted paper or project | That a finished artifact exists. | Whose understanding it represents, now that a clean draft takes seconds to generate. |
| AI text detection | A statistical estimate about how a piece of text was produced. | What the student knows. A false flag also lands on a real student. |
| Oral defense of the student’s own work | Whether the student can explain, justify and extend what they submitted. | How the student performs in a situation they have not seen before. |
| Simulation or role-play | How the student applies knowledge to a live situation and adjusts to the other party. | Depth on a single document. Pair it with a defense when that matters. |
Design principles
Five habits that keep an assessment meaningful with AI around.
02
Require a decision and a reason
Definitions are easy to retrieve. A choice between two imperfect options, with the reasoning behind it, is not.
03
Follow up on what the student says
A second question that depends on the first answer shows whether the understanding holds under pressure.
04
Let students practice first
Low-stakes rehearsal reduces anxiety and makes the graded attempt a fairer measure of what the student knows.
05
Keep the judgment human
AI can conduct the conversation and draft the analysis. The instructor decides what the evidence means and what the grade is.
In Rocketproof
Three ways to gather the evidence.
Assess
Oral exams and oral defense
The student explains and defends a paper, a presentation, a reading or a body of course work, answering follow-up questions out loud or in writing.
AI oral exams and oral defenseSimulate
Role-play and scenarios
The student handles a realistic situation with an AI persona you define, and the transcript records their decisions and reasoning.
AI simulations and role-playBuild with AI
Design and review with built-in AI
Assistants inside the platform help you draft the assignment, the rubric and the questions, and help you read the results.
Built-in AI agents- Every session produces a transcript, and often a recording, that you can read or replay
- Rubric-aligned draft scores show the evidence behind each score
- Nothing is released until you review it
- Approved accommodations, including extended time, audio-only and text responses, are built in
Questions
Questions about authentic assessment.
Can Rocketproof assess student work?
Yes. Students can submit papers, slide decks, reading responses, spreadsheets or source code, and Rocketproof asks questions drawn from that submission. The instructor reviews the transcript and rubric evidence and decides the grade. Rocketproof assesses whether the student can explain and defend the work, which is separate from detecting AI-written text.
Authentic assessment with RocketproofCan Rocketproof conduct oral exams?
Yes. Rocketproof conducts oral exams and oral defenses. The AI examines the student, asks follow-up questions, and produces a transcript and draft rubric scores for the instructor. Students can answer aloud, in a live voice conversation, or by typing, and approved accommodations such as extended time and audio-only are supported.
AI oral exams and oral defenseDoes Rocketproof support AI role-play?
Yes. Rocketproof supports AI role-play in which the AI holds a persona you define, such as a patient, client, interviewer or stakeholder, and responds to what the student actually says. Students can take part by voice or by text. Role-play can be used for practice that does not count toward a grade, or as a graded assessment with a rubric.
AI simulations and role-playCan Rocketproof be used for summative assessment?
Yes. Any assignment type can be graded. The AI drafts rubric-aligned scores with cited evidence, the instructor reviews and adjusts them, and the released grade can pass back to the LMS gradebook where LTI grade passback is configured.
Graded authentic assessmentDoes Rocketproof replace the instructor?
No. Rocketproof conducts the conversation and prepares draft analysis. The instructor reviews the transcript, adjusts the scores and decides what is released. The built-in assistants draft and advise, and they do not grade.
See the evidence a student leaves behind.
Try the interactive demo to see a session as a student and the review screen as an instructor.