Assessment & feedback transformation series

Thursday 17 July from 12 - 1pm (hybrid)

Let's Chat about Oral Assessment: Exploring different approaches at UNSW (Roundtable)

Presenters: Dr Andrew Clarke, Dr Ivan Perez-Wurfl, Dr Maja Cassidy, Dr Pranit Anand
Facilitators: Meredith MacAulay and Dr Andréa Cabral Leal Ferreira

Join us for a dynamic roundtable discussion where UNSW academics share their experiences, insights, and innovations in using oral assessments across diverse disciplines. This session will explore the pedagogical value, practical challenges, and creative strategies behind oral assessment design and implementation from first-hand experience. It might just spark ideas of how to make oral assessment work for your course.

The roundtable will showcase examples from the School of Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA), School of Engineering, School of Science, and UNSW Business School. Attendees are encouraged to participate and contribute their ideas.  

Register for session

About the presenters

Dr Pranit Anand 

Dr Pranit Anand is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Information Systems and Technology Management in the Business School. He currently teaches various networking and cybersecurity courses. He is passionate about students’ engagement and success and recognises the important role assessments play towards this. Pranit recognises the diversity that exists in contemporary classrooms and attempts to design assessments that are meaningful, transferrable, and flexible, enabling all students to have the best chance at success. Pranit will give insight into his experience designing and implementing interactive orals in his post graduate courses, including student and employer perspectives.  

Dr Maja Cassidy  

Dr Maja Cassidy is a Senior Lecturer, ARC DECRA Fellow and Scientia Fellow in the School of Physics. Her research focuses on developing new technologies that will be integrated into future quantum computing and sensor systems. She completed a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Hons. 1) at UNSW as a Coop scholar before moving to Harvard University, where she undertook a Masters and PhD in Applied Physics. After a postdoctoral fellowship at TU Delft/QuTech, she returned to Australia where she spent 5 years as a Principal Research Manager at Microsoft Quantum, where she led quantum hardware integration. Maja joined UNSW at the end of 2022, where she leads the QMD lab, and teaches the 3rd year course Quantum Physics of Solids and Devices, where she has implemented oral assessments to give students training in how to prepare for technical job interviews. 

Dr Andrew Clarke

Dr Andrew Clarke is senior lecturer in sociology and social policy with the School of Social Sciences. His research expertise is in housing and social welfare, and he has extensive experience researching housing insecurity and homelessness. Andrew teaches a series of core courses for undergraduate and postgraduate social science students, covering topics spanning critical social theory to evidence-based policy and research impact. He is increasingly using oral assessments to test student learning in an authentic and secure way, including through debates, video pitches and poster presentations. 

Dr Ivan Perez-Wurfl

Tuesday 1 April from 11am-12pm (hybrid)

Aligning assessments with TEQSA standards: Enhancing quality and compliance in higher education

Presented by Dr Ben Phipps

This workshop explored the relationship between TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) requirements and programmatic assessment. The session highlighted how TEQSA's standards shape and inform the design and delivery of assessments across higher education programs. Participants gained a deeper understanding of how to align assessment practices with TEQSA's criteria for quality, fostering improved student outcomes and ensuring compliance.

About the presenter

Dr Benjamin Phipps

PVCE Nexus Fellow

Dr Benjamin Phipps PVCE Nexus Fellow is a passionate educator; he has taught music and then in the academic development programs at UNSW. Since 2019, his educational and academic development work has focused on assessment, feedback, and student engagement, as well as university-wide educational transformation projects. He collaborates with staff to enhance their tertiary teaching practice and support student learning as well as mentoring scholarship of teaching and learning projects (SoTL). In addition, he provides expertise and pedagogical guidance to both Student Experience and Nexus projects. His current SoTL work includes a project exploring the interplay between AI, teaching and learning, staff capability and professional development opportunities and a project investigating awareness and promotion of wellbeing in teaching and learning communities. 

Wednesday 2 April from 1-2pm (hybrid)

Crafting effective assessment mixes

Presented by Dr Ben Phipps

This interactive workshop explored how to make decisions about what an effective assessment mix looks like at the program level. It examined how assessments can be aligned, repurposed, and integrated to support student learning and development.

About the presenter

Dr Benjamin Phipps

PVCE Nexus Fellow

Dr Benjamin Phipps PVCE Nexus Fellow is a passionate educator; he has taught music and then in the academic development programs at UNSW. Since 2019, his educational and academic development work has focused on assessment, feedback, and student engagement, as well as university-wide educational transformation projects. He collaborates with staff to enhance their tertiary teaching practice and support student learning as well as mentoring scholarship of teaching and learning projects (SoTL). In addition, he provides expertise and pedagogical guidance to both Student Experience and Nexus projects. His current SoTL work includes a project exploring the interplay between AI, teaching and learning, staff capability and professional development opportunities and a project investigating awareness and promotion of wellbeing in teaching and learning communities. 

Tuesday 6 May from 2-3pm (hybrid)

White AI Hacking of Assessments

Presented by Dr Swapneel Thite, Giordana Orsini Florez & Morgan Harris

Through our 'White Hat AI Hacking' project, we have systematically tested assessment integrity by comparing AI-generated submissions with student work, enabling detailed identification of vulnerabilities in assessment design. Our methodology combines ethical hacking principles with a structured co-design workshop approach, guiding academics through evidence-based assessment redesign. This new method, combined with a unique vulnerability detection framework and comparative data analysis, offers educators a practical pathway to strengthen learning assurance in an AI-enabled world. This session provided an overview of the entire lifecycle and experience of the SoTL work conducted in this project from conception to publication within two conference papers.

About the presenters

Dr Swapneel Thite 

Nexus Educational Developer, UNSW Engineering

Dr Swapneel Thite is an Educational Developer for the Nexus Program in the Faculty of Engineering. He holds a PhD in Engineering Education and has published in multiple peer-reviewed conferences and top tier journals. He possesses a strong passion for engineering education, drawing from his experience in engineering education research, teaching, educational development and leading educational projects.  

Giordana Orsini Florez

Nexus Senior Educational Developer, UNSW Engineering

Giordana Orsini Florez is the Senior Educational Developer for the Nexus Program in the Faculty of Engineering. She brings extensive experience in curriculum design and educational innovation. With two master's degrees in education (Curriculum and Assessment, and Leadership and Management), she is dedicated to enhancing teaching practices through effective pedagogical design. Her experience teaching Academic English to international students in Australia and Latin America has given her deep insight into the needs of diverse student cohorts, enabling her to support the creation of inclusive curricula for equitable learning outcomes.

Morgan Harris

Nexus Educational Developer, UNSW Engineering

Morgan Harris is the developer behind a lot of the custom tools in UNSW Moodle and across the faculty of Engineering. He has a wealth of experience building and using software to support teaching and learning. With his edtech expertise, Morgan has been key to the design of the White Hat project, especially for the vulnerability detection setup in various pilot courses.  

Presented by Dr Cherie Lucas, Dr Mark Ian Jones, Dr Chris Campbell & Dr Helena Pacitti

This interactive workshop explored the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into rubric design, focusing on best practices and prompts for creating effective rubrics. 

Facilitated by Nexus Fellows Dr Cherie Lucas, Dr Mark Ian Jones, Dr Chris Campbell, and Dr Helena Pacitti, the session provided insights into how AI can streamline rubric creation, enhance the consistency of grading, and align assessment tasks with course learning outcomes (CLOs). 

This is the fourth workshop in the series for the facilitators currently undertaking a UNSW Roadshow across diverse Faculties and Schools. The presenters will also be presenting a Showcase at the upcoming HERDSA Conference in Perth, July 2025 related to the co-design of this workshop. 

The workshop emphasises the importance of incorporating higher-order cognitive verbs, such as from Bloom's Revised Taxonomy and Fink's Taxonomy, within the rubrics and how to tailor these according to different learning contexts as indicated in published scholarly blogs. ^{1, 2} 

The workshop demonstrates exemplars through screenshots of the processes when prompting GenAI, and if time permits, attendees can utilise one-on-one assistance by the facilitators and explore the iterative process of refining their own AI-generated rubrics, including adjustments to criteria, grading scales, and cognitive focus. 

Special attention will be given to the ethical implications of using GenAI in assessment, modelling educators’ acknowledgment of their use of GenAI in rubric design, with a focus on transparency. 

By the end of the session, participants gained a practical understanding of how AI can be effectively utilised in rubric design and learned valuable tips for adopting AI-driven tools in their own educational contexts.

As preparation for the session, we encourage you to bring along your CLOs and assessment task descriptions.

Key takeaways: 

• Understanding of the basic principles and key components of Rubric Design.
• Practical applications of GenAI to design rubrics to enhance efficiencies and tailor them to diverse educational contexts.
• Considerations for incorporating Cognitive Verbs from Bloom's Taxonomy; Bloom's Revised Taxonomy or Fink’s Taxonomy to promote higher order thinking.
• Ethical Considerations in using GenAI for assessment grading including acknowledgement of use.
• Iterative processes and best practice AI prompts to generate drafts for your rubrics.

References

1. Lucas C, Jones MI, Campbell C, Pacitti H. (2024). Ethical Use of GenAI for Rubric Design at UNSW: Nexus Fellows’ Perspectives. https://www.education.unsw.edu.au/news-events/news/ethical-use-gen-ai-designing-rubrics
2. Lucas C, Jones MI, Pacitti H, Campbell C, Cain J (2025). Considerations for Designing Rubrics with Artificial Intelligence in Pharmacy Education Pulses. https://pulsesrx.com/2025/03/04/considerations-for-designing-rubrics-with-artificial-intelligence-in-pharmacy-education

About the presenters

Dr Cherie Lucas

Nexus Fellow, UNSW Medicine & Health

Dr Cherie Lucas, PhD, BPharm, Grad Cert Edu Stud (Higher Educ), FPS, SFHEA is the Nexus Fellow at the School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health. She also holds an adjunct position at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) with the Faculty of Health, UTS and has been nominated by the Minister for Health and appointed by the Governor to the position of Deputy President of the Pharmacy Council of NSW. She has been awarded numerous teaching awards and recognition including being the recipient of an Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation. 

Her educational research interests include curriculum design and instruction, developing reflective practice tools and assessment strategies to enhance student engagement, experience and learning; and building artificial intelligence (AI) capability for educators and students. She has led teams in interprofessional education and reflective practice and led the development of a UNSW Course Convenor AI Toolkit as a resource for academics for the Faculty of Medicine and Health. Cherie is co-Lead, working with Nexus Fellows to assist academics to design rubrics with AI and co-Lead for the AI in public health network for CAPHIA (Council of Academic Public Health Institutions Australasia). 

Dr Mark Ian Jones

Nexus Fellow, UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture

Dr Mark Ian Jones is a UNSW Nexus Fellow, design historian and a Chartered Architect in the University of New South Wales Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA), School of Art and Design. He has extensive experience in systemic approaches to curriculum design and innovation, rubric design, the affordances of AI in assessment and assurance of learning. Mark has extensive academic leadership experience at UNSW including Nexus Fellow, ADA Director Education Innovation, Deputy Head of School (Design) and Program Director Bachelor of Design.  

Dr Helena Pacitti

Education Focused Lecturer, UNSW Science

Dr Helena Pacitti is an award-winning Education Focused Lecturer with over a decade of teaching experience. Her evidence-based teaching approach focuses on developing Self-Regulated Learning skills in undergraduates, drawing from cognitive and behavioural psychology research. Her course design innovations have improved student engagement and academic performance, while her research collaborations advance the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning through interdisciplinary partnerships. She creates inclusive learning environments that empower students' academic success.

Dr Chris Campbell

Nexus Fellow, UNSW Canberra

Dr Chris Campbell, PFHEA is the Nexus Fellow at UNSW Canberra working across the city and Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) campuses.  Chris engages with staff in innovative learning and teaching and has projects on assessment best practice and staff and student wellbeing. Since beginning at UNSW, Chris has been working with colleagues across the university on designing rubrics using AI. Her main research area is in educational technologies to improve student learning and engagement, particularly in online learning. As a mid-career researcher Chris has a substantive research track record and expertise in digital technologies and pedagogies as well as in evaluating new and emerging technologies in the online space. Chris was the President of ASCILITE from 2019-2023, on the Executive for nine years and became a Life Member in 2023. 

Thursday 29 May from 2-3pm (hybrid)

Reimagining assessment design in the era of AI: Challenges, opportunities, strategies & resources

Presented by Dr Cherie Lucas

The emergence of generative AI presents both challenges and opportunities for reconsidering assessment design in higher education. Traditional assessment methods, often focused on products (artefacts), are increasingly vulnerable to AI-generated outputs, necessitating a shift towards process-driven and higher-order thinking assessments. This workshop explored approaches towards developing AI-resilient and AI-enhanced assessments that uphold academic integrity while providing students with meaningful learning at different stages in their program.

Participants critically evaluated the impact of AI on traditional assessment practices, explored UNSW’s five principles of effective assessment design, in light of TEQSA’s five propositions of assessment in the era of AI; understood the types of assessments which are more difficult for AI to simulate; considered approaches to assessment which contribute with assessment assurance; and examined frameworks such as Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning to enhance rubric design to weight higher grades towards higher order thinking processes. 

The session provided practical resources, including a brief “walk through” of the newly developed Course Convenor AI Toolkit, and the UNSW self-audit checklist to ensure assessments align with ethical and pedagogical best practices. 

When redesigning assessments, the following should be considered: 

• Consider Weighting the Assessment towards the Process Over Product – Focus on students' reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving rather than final artefacts to make assessments more AI-resilient.
• Emphasise Higher-Order Thinking – Use Bloom’s and Fink’s Taxonomies to design assessments and rubrics that prioritise critical thinking, evaluation, and creativity, making it more difficult for AI to simulate.
• Integrate where possible Authentic Assessments – Implement real-world tasks like viva voce, debates, role-plays, and supervised work-integrated learning (WIL) to enhance student engagement and skill demonstration.
• Transparency and Ethical Considerations – Develop transparent, inclusive, and ethical assessment strategies that uphold academic integrity while adapting to AI’s evolving capabilities. Model transparency with your students.
• UNSW resources and frameworks are there to guide you - Utilise Frameworks such as the UNSW Assessment Policy and resources such as Course Convenor AI Toolkit, UNSW assessment considerations in course and program development and self-audit checklists to future-proof assessment designs. 

About the presenter

Dr Cherie Lucas

Nexus Fellow, UNSW Medicine & Health

Dr Cherie Lucas, PhD, BPharm, Grad Cert Edu Stud (Higher Educ), FPS, SFHEA is the Nexus Fellow at the School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of NSW, Sydney, Australia. Cherie has published over 91 publications in the area of teaching and learning with over 55 as first author. She has been awarded numerous Vice-Chancellor teaching, learning, innovation awards and recognition including being the recipient of an Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation for the individual category in “motivating and inspiring student learning”. Cherie is also the recipient of two research awards at international conferences related to her SoTL research. 

Her educational research interests include curriculum design and instruction, developing reflective practice tools, including those used with ePortfolios; assessment strategies to enhance student engagement, experience and learning; and building artificial intelligence (AI) capability for educators and students. She has led teams in interprofessional education, ePortfolios, collaborated with colleagues on the development of AI feedback tools and strategies to enhance reflective practice. 

Tuesday 10 June from 1-2pm (hybrid)

Redesign, don’t police: Addressing vulnerabilities in your assessment mix

Presented by Dr Fiacre Rougieux

View workshop recording

^{(only accessible to UNSW staff)}

Generative AI (GenAI) tools can be used to write lab reports, literature reviews, theses, presentations, and code. They can even assist in drafting reflective essays, including creating unique personas that mimic students. At the same time, these tools can serve as powerful learning partners for our students.

In this session, we consider both of these roles as we introduce effective models for adapting your assessments and rubrics to ensure they remain fit for purpose in the age of GenAI. We will demonstrate strategies for evaluating the learning process rather than just the final product. We will also show how you can leverage AI to make time for this more time-intensive, process-based feedback approach.

Key takeaways: 

• Map the weak spots: Identify assessments that are susceptible to AI use, and locate them within the context of the UNSW six-lane approach.
• Shift from detection to deterrence: Design assessment types and rubric items that evaluate intermediate steps in students’ thinking and work processes.
• Assess the process: Require students to document their workflow, justify their decisions, and reflect on their choices to provide insight into their learning journey.
• Promote AI literacy: Incorporate prompt-logging and iterative practice with reflective components to help students develop critical AI engagement skills.
• Leverage AI for feedback: Use AI tools yourself to support the more time-intensive process of assessment and feedback, such as through AI-assisted assessment design or tutoring.

About the presenter

Dr Fiacre Rougieux

Nexus Fellow, UNSW Engineering

Fiacre Rougieux is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Photovoltaic & Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW Sydney. His research spans PV system reliability, data-driven fault analytics and educational research. He leads institution-wide projects on program-level assessment, developing various tools (such as SDG dashboard) and tools such as Mappy for curriculum mapping. His current work looks at how generative AI changes mastery learning and integrity in engineering education and how to best scaffold AI literacy in our programs.

Thursday 26 June from 11am-12pm (in-person only)

Beyond exams: Developing alternative assessment for your course

Presented by Ed Harbour & Dr Andrew Dymock

This interactive workshop explores the alternatives available to teachers outside the traditional exam system. Facilitated by UNSW Business School lecturers, Ed Harbor and Dr Andrew Dymock, this session will provide insights into how you can create a diverse range of assessments to keep pace with AI in a continuously changing educational environment.

Why is this topic important?

The topic of alternative assessments is crucial. Many university departments have discontinued invigilation of final exams or are considering dropping final exam invigilation in the future. Rethinking authentic assessment is timely, given the need to reassess assessments in light of the ongoing impact of AI technology. Ultimately, students and future employees are seeking universities that actively prepare them for professional careers, as well as impart subject knowledge.

By the end of this session, participants will have gained specific alternatives to the final exam that they can apply to their courses.

As preparation for the session, it is encouraged that you consider a course that you teach that currently has a final exam, to explore alternatives in an AI driven environment.

About the presenters

Ed Harbor

Education Focussed Lecturer, UNSW Business

Ed Harbor is a full-time Education Focused Lecturer, who has taught at UNSW for over 20 years and is responsible for the design, development and delivery of courses on the postgraduate programmes including the Executive MBA Programme at the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM). Ed has created an impressive reputation as one of the most passionate, engaging and knowledgeable teachers in his areas of expertise. He is a firm believer in the principle that you must engage with an audience through enthusiasm and inspiration in order for them to really appreciate individual topic areas. For example, one of his main joys in life is demonstrating that accounting can indeed be interesting and enjoyable, regardless of what some stereotypes may at times suggest.

Dr Andrew Dymock

Nexus Fellow, UNSW Business

Andrew is the Nexus Fellow for the School of Accounting, Auditing and Taxation. Andrew has a PhD in Accounting and qualifications in Education and is also a currently credentialled Secondary School Teacher and taught in several leading schools in Sydney. He has extensive experience in implementing effective teaching and learning strategies and assessment across secondary and tertiary settings, as well as educational innovation, including AI and educational technologies. He also has experience as a lecturer, accountant and auditor. Outside of university, he enjoys playing sport and landscape photography.