We are happy to share a new publication sole-authored by Dr Jess Jiahui Luo, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership (EPL), in the journal Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (SSCI, A*, Q1). The paper is titled “A critical review of GenAI policies in higher education assessment: a call to reconsider the ‘originality’ of students’ work”.
One month into its publication, the paper has emerged as one of the top 4 most-read studies in this flagship assessment journal over the past year. The paper is also in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Almetric in terms of global attention on social media and news outlets. The author would like to thank FRHDC and EPL for their support in making this study openly accessible to generate a broader impact.
Abstract:
This study offers a critical examination of university policies developed to address recent challenges presented by generative AI (GenAI) to higher education assessment. Drawing on Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented to be’ (WPR) framework, the study analysed the GenAI policies of world-leading universities to explore what are considered problems in this AI-mediated assessment landscape and how these problems are represented in policies. Although miscellaneous GenAI-related problems were mentioned in these policies, the primary problem represented is that students may not submit original work for assessment. In the current framing, GenAI is often viewed as a type of external assistance separate from the student’s independent efforts and intellectual contribution, thereby undermining the originality of their work. The study argues that such problem representation fails to acknowledge how the rise of GenAI further complicates the process of producing original work and what it means by originality in a time when knowledge production becomes increasingly distributed, collaborative and mediated by technology.
You can read the paper here.