Comment by baud9600 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by baud9600 | Hacker News Reader

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I am waiting for AI Viva Voce (“AVV”). I am really surprised we aren’t hearing more about this idea?

Try it for yourself by making a prompt like this (adapt as needed):

Pretend I am an undergraduate student of Computer Science. I am learning about early microprocessors from the 1970s. I want you to ask me an examination question as if you were doing a viva voce exam with me, to test my understanding of concepts. I want you to receive my answer and then based on what I said I want you to ask me a more specific question to probe my understanding. Repeat this interaction up to 5 times. Then grade my understanding so far, by giving me a pass, merit, credit, or distinction. Can you explain how you arrive at the grade based on my answers and your expectation of undergraduate knowledge of microprocessor theory?

I've tried stuff like this, but the problem is that you don't know if it's answers are correct, and more importantly, you don't know if its questions are on base or not. Plus its too easy to go off on tangents, especially when you ask it questions to clarify. You can get some more success by writing down a framework beforehand, but openended dialog is still not a good way to learn with AI, from my experience.

Good points. I’ve tried this a few times and I’ve been impressed by the dialogue. Given this was a very simple prompt, I am convinced a more precise version could be developed, including a rubric, a library of course content, starter questions and other guidance to the AI. I haven’t seen anything like this and schools / universities seem to be “struggling” with AI, which has me wondering why not embrace LLMs for learning and assessment, like this?

I mean, everyone I know has been using socratic dialogue for months to aid understanding, this seems like a variation of that. The issue is that if the answer is too easy to obtain it's hard to have the discipline not to cheat.

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