Assessing and evaluating the work of students is a critical aspect of education across all sectors. While there is a long history of work using digital technologies to support and diversify assessment practice, recent developments in AI and data-driven technologies have created profound challenges for the ways in which educators approach this task.
This course will explore the nature of assessment, with a particular focus on data-driven technologies and artificial intelligence. It will introduce you to the theory and history of assessment, providing you with an overview of the politics of assessment internationally, and then moving on to look at how digital practices and norms are changing how educators and students approach it.
We will look at the ethical and pedagogical challenges around the widespread use of generative AI in schools and universities, considering the ways in which educational technology platforms and plagiarism detection systems are changing the ways in which assessment is understood and organised. We will also consider the impact of these forms of technological change on the politics, culture and practices of teaching.
Keywords: assessment; AI; artificial intelligence; evaluation; teaching practice
In the first part of the course, you will have the opportunity to study the histories and cultures of assessment within education. We will look at how current, dominant assessment modes (such as closed-book exams and standardised assessment) have come to be considered ‘mainstream’, and we will look at the implications of these assessment cultures for the global politics of education.
In part two, you will have the opportunity to explore alternative ways of thinking about assessment, designing and discussing alternative and radical approaches such as digital and multimodal assessment, peer and self assessment, collaborative, oral and programme-level assessment and more.
Finally, the course will consider contemporary challenges for assessment practice, in particular those posed by artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies. We consider, for example, automated assessment through the mining of personal data, the impact of generative AI on assessment integrity and its representation in the public sphere, and at automated systems for identifying plagiarism.
“Assessment is one of the most important things we do in education, yet as practitioners we rarely have the space to think deeply and differently about what it is, and why we do it. This course will give students the chance to work together to understand its current practical, political and technological contexts, and what radically different futures might be imagined for it.”
- Siân Bayne, Course Organiser
This course is critical and research-based but also practical, including hands-on elements and design tasks. You will be supported to understand how complex and deeply political assessment is, by reading classic and current research in the field. However, you will also have the chance to experiment and play with radically different approaches to assessment – work that will feed into your final assessment. Finally, you will be able to study the most recent technological developments in this area, specifically AI and data-driven approaches, in order to take an informed and critical approach to the future of assessment in your own context.
There are three assessment components for this course. The first, worth 25% of the overall grade, is an individual 'think piece'. The second, worth 50% of the overall grade, is a collaborative, group-graded project. The third, worth 25% of the overall grade, is an individual position piece.
On completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate an analytical grasp of the purposes, practices and politics of assessment in education.
- Critically evaluate its benefits, limitations and uses.
- Demonstrate your familiarity with a range of approaches to designing and evaluating assessment strategies.
- Understand the practical and strategic issues posed for assessment by technologies including artificial intelligence.
- Critique and review assessment practices in your chosen professional area.
Grek, S. (2009). Governing by numbers: the PISA ‘effect’ in Europe. Journal of Education Policy, 24(1), 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930802412669
Kirschenbaum M, Raley R. AI and the University as a Service. PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 2024;139(3):504-515. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/ai-and-the-university-as-a-service/
Sitta, F. A. et al (2023) The Futures of Assessments: navigating uncertainties through the lens of anticipatory thinking. DEFI/Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/698413-the-futures-of-assessment-navigating-uncertainties-through-the-lenses-of-anticipatory-thinking.pdf