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CODE Webinar: GenAI and Academic Integrity – A Two-Lane Approach

Open use versus secure assessments under a programmatic assessment design approach 

This Centre for Online and Distance Education Webinar explores generative AI’s disruptive impact on higher education, addressing urgent challenges to academic integrity, assessment fairness, and credibility. Drawing on recent sector-leading insights, it offers practical strategies and innovative solutions for adapting to this rapidly evolving landscape that captures both the risks and emerging opportunities. 

By the end of the session, participants will leave with a nuanced understanding of the GenAI landscape in higher education - equipped with actionable insights into how academic institutions are responding, adapting and evolving in the face of this ongoing disruption.  

Speaker: CODE Fellow Professor Steven WarburtonPro Vice-Chancellor (Education Innovation) at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Chair: Director of CODE, Dr Linda Amrane-Cooper

Generative AI (GenAI) has triggered a paradigm shift in higher education, exposing critical tensions between how and what we teach and the urgent need to safeguard academic integrity in assessment. In a recent reflection (Reference 1), Jason Lodge (2024) outlined two key issues: the chronic challenge of what and how we teach now that AI is everywhere, and the acute challenge of maintaining the fairness, validity and credibility of educational assessment.   

This presentation examines these issues through the lens of two recent sector-defining publications: Assessment Reform for the Age of Artificial Intelligence(Reference 2) and GenAI Strategies for Australian Higher Education: Emerging Practice (Reference 3). Both papers were prompted by a sector-wide RFI from the Australian regulator, TEQSA, for institutions to submit a credible action plan in response to the threats posed by AI to the integrity of their awards.   

We critically examine key areas, including the role and limitations of AI writing detection tools, policy and regulatory responses to GenAI, and the growing use of programmatic assessment design as a safeguard against assessment vulnerabilities. Programmatic assessment is seen as a pillar of assessment security and is emerging as a focal strategy across the sector. In the final section, we will highlight the University of Sydney's 'two-lane' approach (Reference 4) and review a range of assessment typologies currently being piloted across the sector, offering practical insights for innovation and adaptation.   

 

References: 

1.  

2. Assessment reform for the age of artificial intelligence, see  

3. Gen AI strategies for Australian higher education: Emerging practice, see   

4.  

All welcome-this event is free to attend, but advance registration is required.