One Minute of Independent Thought

For most of the history of the university, unaided thinking was unremarkable. In our latest Artificial Universities exercise we reversed that assumption.

Students entering an examination hall are given one minute, one sheet of paper and one pen. No model, search system, assistant or computational support is permitted. The exercise is advertised proudly as an opportunity to “Think for Yourself”.

Participants found the proposition comic until they began debating what the minute was supposed to measure. Memory? originality? confidence? handwriting? The fiction exposes a problem already emerging in assessment: once intelligent assistance is ubiquitous, institutions may need to invent increasingly artificial situations in order to isolate the individual.