Multimedia + Peer Review vs the Bots

If you’ve graded a stack of essays lately, you’ve probably asked yourself: “Did this student actually write this, or did ChatGPT do the heavy lifting?” AI has made it ridiculously easy for students to hand in work that sounds polished but doesn’t really show whether they understand the material.  I’ve even had this thought when my son shared his college essay with me and the ideas were gorgeous as were the Em dashes which I know he doesn’t know when to use properly. (Didn’t get that?  For an irreverent laugh, read this comedy piece.)

So how do we sidestep the AI ghostwriter problem? Simple: make students show what they know.

Why Multimedia Changes the Game

Instead of another five-paragraph essay, imagine a student:

• Recording a short video presentation.

• Walking through a screen share of their problem-solving steps, or even share their essay and talk about their writing and ideas.

• Annotating an image to explain historical cause-and-effect.

Suddenly, it’s not just about polished words, it’s about authentic demonstration. AI struggles to fake your student’s voice, gestures, and reflections.

The Teacher’s New Burden

But here’s the rub: grading all that multimedia can eat up instructor evenings (and sanity). Watching twenty 5-minute videos takes longer than breezing through twenty essays. Instructors love authentic assessment—until they realize it means doubling their grading load.

Sharing the Load With Students

The secret weapon? Peer review.

When students review each other’s work, two key things happen:

1. They deepening their own understanding.

2. Instructors don’t drown in grading.

But peer review only works if it’s structured. Handing students a blank “tell your classmate what you think” box isn’t enough. Clear criteria, guided reflection, and consistency matter.  Bonus points for evaluating using a rubric.

Why Tools Matter

Here’s the snag: most LMSs make peer review clunky and painful. The workflows feel like a group project designed by a committee in 1999. That’s why many institutions turn to third-party peer review tools platforms built to make the process smooth, fair, and even (dare we say) enjoyable.  If you don’t have a third party tool, you may have to stick with informal discussion forums to hopefully make this work as the time burden on instructors to setup, manage and grade peer review is too high.

The Sweet Spot: Learning + Time-Savings + AI-Resilience

When done well, peer review in multimedia assignments hits the trifecta:

• Good learning science: students learn by teaching and critiquing.

• Time-savings: instructors aren’t watching every single video solo.

• AI-resilience: students demonstrate actual thinking and reflection that AI can’t easily fake.

The result? Less “Is this ChatGPT?” and more “Oh snap, this student gets it!”