St. Johns River State College elevates exam integrity and critical thinking with Sherpath AI

“Critical thinking is something that you can’t just take a course on and be good to go. You have to train your brain to think differently.”

For Dr. Vanessa Roth, Foundations instructor at St. Johns River State College (SJR State), [EC1] building that mindset starts with the tests she gives students. When she learned that exam questions were circulating online, she knew something had to change.

“Some of them were almost verbatim,” she said. “I said we’ve got to change this, because it’s not improving students when they go to further semesters and not getting them to critically think like they need to.”

From ICU Nurse to nurse educator

Initially trained as an ICU nurse, Dr. Roth is passionate about teaching because she’s walked the same path as her students. “I’m predominantly the Foundations instructor, and that’s the very first course they take when they come into the program. So I’m their introduction to the program. I love dealing with the brand-new students that come in excited.”

The challenge: compromised test banks

Before Dr. Roth joined SJR State, students were finding and sharing old test questions online. “I can memorize a test question after seeing it once,” she says. “If I can do that, students can too. It doesn’t help them when they go on to harder classes. It’s not helping them build the skills they need to pass boards.”

She wanted to write new questions herself, but the time required to build and validate exams from scratch was daunting. “Without Sherpath AI, I never would have slept,” she laughs.

What makes Sherpath AI different

Sherpath AI is an innovative AI-powered chat tool that generates personalized answers from Elsevier’s trusted, evidence-based content. It allows educators and students to interact using natural language, engaging in back-and-forth dialogue that creates a more dynamic and personalized learning experience.

“It’s tied to my book, so I know the content is accurate,” Dr. Roth says. “It brings in questions that are related to the text, and it also shows the page numbers where I can find that information.”

Unlike generic AI tools, Sherpath AI is built on Elsevier’s vast library of verified content and includes features like Osmosis videos, source citations, and alternative ways to explain difficult concepts.

“I learned that some teachers were having issues using ChatGPT because some of the information on it was not relevant or invalid,” she explains. “You would have to go back and validate that the information was actually correct and that it was coming from your book.”

Creating four versions of every exam

Sherpath AI allowed Dr. Roth to build multiple exam versions to protect test integrity. “In one class, there are six tests total, including the final. The tests are 50 questions each, and the final is 100. I was able to write four different versions of the regular chapter exams, and then one final, within a month. Since the next class coming up doesn’t have the exact same test as the previous, they can’t copy answers.”

The time savings were enormous. “I would have probably only gotten maybe three tests done—and still have to make up tests through the program as the program was continuing—on top of grading student papers and clinical assignments.”

Fine-tuning for nursing student feedback

Dr. Roth appreciates how Sherpath AI adapts over time. “After students took the new exam questions, I would get feedback from them and sometimes adjust them. It gains a memory of how you want the questions to be. And so it consistently puts out the same kind of questions, the same way. It learns me.”

A colleague’s test bank crisis

Other instructors have taken notice. “One of the other teachers’ test banks got released somehow, and she was able to go in and redo the test with a whole new test bank and whole new test questions from using Sherpath AI,” Dr. Roth says. “They were just in shock at how quickly you could get questions, especially if your test became compromised.”

Impact on nursing students

Students quickly saw the difference. Their HESI scores are much higher. My tests are harder than other classes, but they eventually realized why it was important”, she says. “Many of the students have come back and said, ‘Thank you for doing that, because it made this transition so much easier.’”

Building curriculum, too

Sherpath AI is also a tool for instruction. “I’ve started to use it to build curriculum. I use it to make an evolving case study that I could put into my PowerPoints that I lecture on. We talk about this patient throughout the chapter, and it’s still developing their critical thinking.”