AI assistance and agentic workflows
Distinguish a tool that responds to a request from a system delegated a sequence of actions.
Transferred from Psy101 Teaching, with its original examples and reading scope. For the current distinction between assistance, predefined workflows and agents, read Assistance, Workflows and Agents.
Working definitions for this reference
AI assistance here means bounded support for a task: explaining a term, suggesting search phrases or commenting on a draft. Agentic AI means a system given a goal that can plan and carry out multiple steps, potentially using tools, searching, producing files or revising its work. These are editorial working definitions; products vary, and “agentic” is not a stable educational assessment category.
Ask which decisions were delegated
Consider an evidence review. One student asks a tool for possible search terms, then reads and compares papers. Another delegates searching, selection, synthesis and writing to an agent. The final documents may look similar, but the students have had different opportunities to practice judgment. This comparison is conceptual, not the result of an experimental comparison of the two workflows.
A record of actions helps, but is not proof of learning
An editorial delegation record names the goal, steps the system performed, tools or sources used, claims checked and decisions the student retained. Logs can support discussion but may be incomplete or generated; pair them with an independent explanation or application. TEQSA’s assessment guidance supports attention to process and independent demonstrations, but does not validate this exact template.
Teachers also delegate
A teacher may use an agent to propose a reading list, draft quiz distractors or compare syllabus structures. Check source existence, alignment, ambiguity, copyright and accessibility before use. Never treat the agent’s own statement “verified” as a reading record. Human responsibility for educational decisions remains central in UNESCO’s guidance; its landing page, rather than the full book, was reviewed here.
An original classroom example
Compare two workflows for a study critique: search-term assistance and delegated full synthesis. For each, identify the student decisions, verification steps and an assessment that would reveal the intended skill.