Generative Artificial Intelligence as an aid for the assessment of Early Modern History student work in higher education

Antonio Carrasco-Rodríguez; Humberto Álvarez Sepúlveda

doi:10.1590/1983-3652.2026.59410

Autores/as

Antonio Carrasco-Rodríguez Universidad de Alicante, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Alicante, España https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3913-0200
Humberto Álvarez Sepúlveda Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Facultad de Educación, Concepción, Chile https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5729-3404

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-3652.2026.59410

Palabras clave:

Early Modern History, Hybrid assessment model, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Higher education, Analytical rubrics

Resumen

This article examines the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a supportive instrument in the assessment of undergraduate academic work in Early Modern American History. Drawing on a hybrid evaluation model that integrates human judgment with AI-assisted assessment, the study implemented three successive stages of correction: an initial assessment based on a basic rubric, a second evaluation using an advanced analytical rubric, and a final phase involving the critical recalibration of prior results. The corpus consisted of 21 research-based assignments produced by fourth-year History students and evaluated according to technical, historiographical, and critical-thinking criteria. The findings show that, once properly calibrated, the AI system was able to discriminate effectively between different levels of academic quality and to identify recurring patterns of historical reasoning in student work. A comparison between human-generated and AI-generated grades revealed a high degree of convergence, alongside significant divergences. While the AI demonstrated greater sensitivity to methodological rigor and critical engagement, human evaluators tended to prioritize formal presentation and technical aspects of writing. Rather than replacing instructor judgment, the proposed model reframes assessment as a more rigorous, equitable, and reflexive pedagogical process. The study suggests that, when embedded within demanding, transparent, and reviewable pedagogical frameworks, generative artificial intelligence can operate as an epistemic agent within the Humanities, contributing meaningfully to the evaluation of complex historical learning outcomes.

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Biografía del autor/a

Antonio Carrasco-Rodríguez, Universidad de Alicante, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Alicante, España

Antonio Carrasco Rodríguez holds a PhD in Modern History from the University of Alicante.
His teaching career dates back to 1997, the year in which, after finishing his research grant for Research Staff Training from the Ministry of Education and Culture, he taught for a year at the University of Alicante through a teaching collaboration.
From 1999 to 2004 he worked on the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library project at the University of Alicante, as a digital editing technician and coordinator of some twenty websites on historical topics. During this time, he was also delegated archivist of the Basilica of Santa María in Alicante. Between 2005 and 2009 he worked as director of Research, Development and Innovation Projects at the Digital Workshop of the University of Alicante, working as a consultant on a dozen research projects that received public funding from the State, and working as principal investigator on two R+D+i projects, funded by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, and related to the application of new digital technologies to the fields of teaching and dissemination.
From 2008 to September 2022 he was associate professor in the Department of Medieval History, Modern History and Historiographic Sciences and Techniques at the University of Alicante. Since September 2022 he has been Assistant Professor at the Department. He is currently a member of the Commissions of the Degree in History, Quality and Equality of the Faculty of Arts. He is also a tutor for the first and fourth years of the Degree in History, and is responsible for the Tutorial Action Programme in the aforementioned Faculty.
He has excelled in the application of technology to teaching. He is the administrator of some 600 blogs on historical topics and fifty YouTube channels, created with his students. He has co-directed the creation of three history-based video games, developed in collaboration with teachers and students of the Multimedia Engineering and History degrees. He is the author of several history textbooks for secondary school.
He uses social networks and digital technologies in the classroom to encourage motivation, engagement and participation. He tries to develop the critical capacity and the skills and competences of his students through various activities, including those related to gamification and project and game-based learning. He is a specialist in the theory and application of the flipped classroom method. He has incorporated the use of mobile devices and e-learning platforms in the teaching and assessment (and co-assessment) of his students. Hos main lines of research are church and government history, gender history, teaching innovation, and applications of artificial intelligence to history teaching.

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