Smart Exits: Designing and Analyzing Exit Tickets with AI

This article is written by ChatGPT based on webinar transcript and participant exit tickets.

June 4, 2026

One of the easiest instructional strategies to overlook is also one of the most powerful.

At Camp Plug and Play 20.0, Tony Vincent's session, "Smart Exits: Designing and Analyzing Exit Tickets with AI," explored how teachers can use quick end-of-lesson check-ins to gather meaningful feedback, guide instruction, and save time with the help of artificial intelligence. The session focused on both sides of the exit ticket process: creating effective questions and analyzing student responses.

The biggest takeaway? Exit tickets do not need to be complicated, time-consuming, or difficult to review.

Why Exit Tickets Matter

Exit tickets provide a quick snapshot of student thinking at the end of a lesson. They can reveal misconceptions, encourage reflection, gauge confidence, and help teachers determine next steps.

As participants discussed, many teachers know the value of exit tickets but often skip them because time runs short.

"Time sneaks up on you," Tony noted during the webinar. "The part that gets left out of lessons so often is the end."

AI can help solve that problem.

AI as an Exit Ticket Assistant

Throughout the session, teachers saw how AI tools such as Gemini, ChatGPT, and NotebookLM can support every stage of the exit ticket process.

Teachers can ask AI to:

  • Generate exit ticket questions

  • Differentiate questions by grade level

  • Create multiple formats and styles

  • Analyze student responses

  • Identify misconceptions

  • Suggest instructional next steps

  • Highlight students who may need additional support

Participants were especially impressed by AI's ability to quickly analyze large collections of responses.

"I used to think I didn't have time to analyze data, but now I know I can use Gemini to analyze it for me quickly," wrote high school Spanish teacher Jessica Short.

Technology Integration Specialist Jen Lane shared a similar realization:

"AI can create exit tickets, analyze exit ticket responses, and provide feedback on your next steps."

Better Questions Lead to Better Insights

The session emphasized that effective exit tickets go beyond simple recall questions.

Teachers explored several categories of prompts:

  • Understanding

  • Reflection

  • Connection

  • Application

  • Confidence

  • Emotion

  • Feedback

For example:

  • Explain today's main concept in your own words.

  • What was the hardest part of today's lesson?

  • How does this connect to something you've learned before?

  • How confident are you that you could teach this concept to someone else?

  • What is one thing I could do differently to help you learn this better?

Participants also explored six online exit ticket question banks filled with ready-to-use prompts.

"Teachers should know that there are so many options out there," wrote 5th grade teacher Deanna Acuna. "They don't have to make up their own exit tickets."

AI-Powered Exit Ticket Creation

Tony demonstrated how providing AI with a lesson objective, grade level, subject area, and desired question type can generate targeted exit tickets in seconds.

Participants learned that AI works best when given context, including:

  • Grade level

  • Subject area

  • Learning objective

  • Desired question style

  • Student characteristics

  • Lesson materials

Teachers also received access to an Exit Ticket Generator Gem that helps create questions across multiple categories.

Several participants commented on how much time this could save.

"I used to think exit tickets were hard to create, but now I know I can use AI to help me create my exit tickets," wrote Susan Sandusky.

From Data Collection to Data Analysis

Perhaps the most exciting part of the session was seeing AI analyze student responses.

Teachers learned how to:

  • Analyze Google Forms responses

  • Upload spreadsheets directly into Gemini

  • Use images of sticky notes and handwritten responses

  • Analyze student work from Google Classroom

  • Use NotebookLM to review up to 50 student files at once

One simple prompt powered many of the demonstrations:

Look at these exit ticket answers. What do they show about what my students understood, what they're confused about, and what I should do next? Who should I check in with?

Teachers quickly saw how AI could summarize patterns, identify misunderstandings, and suggest instructional responses.

"I used to think I knew how to analyze exit tickets, but now I know how AI can help me do so more efficiently and maybe see things I missed," wrote Jen Lane.

Instructional Coach RosaMaria summed it up simply:

"There's an endless source for creating exit tickets and also a million ways to use them for assessment and reflective purposes."

Creative Exit Ticket Formats

The session also showcased several creative approaches to exit tickets.

The Less-Than-53-Character Summary

Students summarize their learning in fewer than 53 characters, forcing them to prioritize key ideas and keep responses concise.

Form of Fortune

One crowd favorite was the "Form of Fortune," a Google Form that randomly assigns students a reflection question. By using the redacted font in Google Forms, students select a hidden option and discover their question only after clicking Next.

Participants loved the idea.

"I am especially grateful for the Form of Fortune! Can't wait to use that in my classroom," wrote 5th grade teacher Crissy Malouf.

Sticky Notes and Whiteboards

Teachers were reminded that technology is not required.

Exit tickets can be:

  • Sticky notes

  • Whiteboard responses

  • Verbal check-ins

  • Drawings

  • One-word summaries

  • Brain dumps

  • Quick reflections

Fourth grade teacher Elah appreciated this flexibility:

"I used to think that exit tickets would never be short, but now I know verbal ones still count as an exit ticket."

NotebookLM: A Hidden Gem

Another highlight was learning how NotebookLM can analyze large collections of student work from Google Classroom.

Unlike Gemini's file upload limits, NotebookLM can process up to 50 student files at once.

Tech Integration Specialist Joel Wisser noted:

"NotebookLM can handle much larger quantities of file uploads and will allow teachers to use the AI to evaluate patterns of understanding or misunderstandings amongst their students."

For many attendees, this was a completely new use case for AI.

The Big Takeaway

By the end of the session, many participants had shifted their thinking about exit tickets.

Again and again, teachers described realizing that exit tickets do not need to be burdensome.

"I used to think exit tickets created a lot of work for me, but now I know that I can use AI to help me analyze my data from exit tickets," wrote Wendy Cornacchio.

Melissa Worsham shared a similar insight:

"I used to think that exit tickets take too much time and often get skipped due to time constraints, but now I know that they can be doable in a short amount of time."

Perhaps the biggest lesson was that AI is not replacing good teaching. Instead, it is helping teachers spend less time creating and sorting data and more time responding to what students actually need.

When thoughtfully designed and efficiently analyzed, exit tickets become more than a closing activity. They become a powerful tool for reflection, feedback, and informed instruction.

And thanks to AI, they may finally be practical enough to use more often.