For the past few years, much of the debate about generative AI in higher education has focused on written assessments. The essay emerged as a key concern because tools like ChatGPT can generate proficient written responses quickly and at scale, challenging many traditional assessment assumptions. We have invested significant time contemplating the implications. How can…
Higher education is infatuated with numbers. Educators assign students a mark for an assessment, combine those marks into a final unit grade, and then institutions combine grades from multiple units into a Grade Point Average (GPA). The result is a wonderfully convenient numerical value. Years of learning ultimately represented by a number that can be…
In higher education, students often complete an assessment, submit it, receive a grade, and then move on. Academics evaluate and mark the work, offer feedback, and focus on the next task. The assessment has effectively fulfilled its purpose: generating evidence, informing judgments, and contributing to the final results. But has it actually contributed to the…
Higher education frequently treats grades as exact indicators of learning. For example, one student might get 74%, while another earns 75%. Similarly, one might be awarded a Credit and the other a Distinction. Transcripts, GPA calculations, scholarship rankings, and postgraduate admissions all operate under the assumption that these distinctions are quantifiable, objective, and carry significant…
Watch anyone engaged in genuine learning, whether it’s a child wobbling on their bike, a filmmaker wrestling with an edit, or a student drafting an essay, and one thing becomes clear: learning is messy. It’s tangled, unpredictable, and full of false starts. The progress of learning never moves in a straight line. Instead, it loops, dips,…