Cited by 110Academic integrity and plagiarismArtificial Intelligence in EducationStudent Assessment and Feedback

Talk is cheap: why structural assessment changes are needed for a time of GenAI

Open access
Corbin, Thomas, Dawson, Phillip, Liu, Danny·2025·Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education

Abstract

Generative AI (GenAI) challenges assessment validity by enabling students to complete tasks without demonstrating genuine capability. In response to this challenge, institutions have developed and implemented various approaches that aim to communicate permissible AI use to students. Familiar examples include the ‘traffic light’ approach now commonly found within institutional policy. While well-intentioned, these approaches share a common limitation: They focus primarily on communicating rules rather than redesigning assessment mechanics. To clarify why such approaches fail, and to guide more effective responses, this paper introduces a novel conceptual distinction between discursive changes to assessment (modifications relying solely on instructions students remain free to ignore) and structural changes (modifications that reshape the underlying mechanics of assessment tasks themselves). Through a critical analysis of prominent frameworks, we demonstrate that current approaches predominantly rely on discursive changes that create what we term an ‘enforcement illusion’. We find that educational frameworks frequently borrow the language of socially familiar structural systems (like vehicular traffic lights) while lacking their actual enforcement capabilities, creating an illusion of assessment security. In place of this, we argue for a shift towards structural assessment redesign that builds validity into assessment architecture rather than attempting to impose it through unen…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/02602938.2025.2503964

Cites

14 of 14 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Corbin, T., Dawson, P., & Liu, D.
Affiliations
  • Deakin University (AU)
  • The University of Sydney (AU)
Corresponding author
Corbin, Thomas
Venue
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
Published
2025-05-15
Volume
50
Issue
7
Pages
1087-1097
ISSN
  • 0260-2938 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-297X
OpenAlex
W4410403683
Cited by
107
References
14
Citations by year
2026: 89 · 2025: 18
FWCI
111.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Academic integrity and plagiarism
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Artificial Intelligence in Education
  • Social Sciences › Education › Student Assessment and Feedback
Keywords
generative AI, assessment validity, discursive change, AI policy in higher education, student use of AI

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review