In an earlier post, reference was made to an article by Corbin & others in which they indicated that it is imperative that structural changes should be made regarding assessment in the age of AI & GenAI. This article only gave a broad indication of the avenues that could be followed to rethink assessment.
What was significant about the reception of this important article, is the fact that it received a high Altmetric score of 60 within just a few weeks. The number of views has since risen to more than 36000, and the Altmetric score has reached 81.
The Altmetric score is an indication of the attention and engagement a scholarly article receives online in a wide variety of news media and social media. This could, evidently, also be across a wider area of education than merely higher education.
A follow-up article on assessment by most of the same authors has now upped the ante regarding the Altmetric score, namely 92 within a period of only 7 weeks, and topping the trending list. The number of views of the article is already more than 12000, and the very high Altmetric score is an indication that the proposed approach to the matter of assessment is reaching a wider audience than only academics.
The title of the article by Corbin & others in the journal Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education (3 September) is ‘The wicked problem of AI and assessment’ (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02602938.2025.2553340).
The authors make the point that most of the current approaches to the matter of assessment in the AI/GenAI age take the line that the challenge can be solved by identifying and enacting the ‘correct’ solution. It just needs increased effort by all parties. However, the increased number of publications on the topic do not seem to bring us closer to a solution.
The authors then indicate that there is reason to believe that the challenge should be regarded as what is called a ‘wicked problem’. They indicate that the challenge seems to meet all ten widely recognised characteristics of a ‘wicked problem’.
A ‘wicked problem’ is different from a ‘difficult problem’, which can be approached by following traditional ways:
“Our findings show that changing university assessments in response to AI exhibits all ten characteristics of a wicked problem. This recognition suggests that we need to reframe the challenge. In the context of higher education assessment, the challenge posed by GenAI is better understood not as a problem to be solved but as a condition to be navigated.”
Reframing the GenAI-assessment challenge in this way means that there is no silver bullet; instead, educators should engage in a continual search for better designs to ensure both the use of GenAI and effective student learning. The burden must be lifted from the educators in the sense that innovative approaches that might not be as effective as expected, can be regarded as learning and progress. Iteration and experimenting are necessary and should be welcomed.
In addition, provision must be made for divergent approaches within one institution:
“…different contexts might require quite different responses. This recognises that quality manifests differently across years, disciplines, cohort sizes, and professional destinations. The business educator who integrates AI because employers demand it and the nursing educator who restricts it to ensure clinical competence are both appropriate.”
The article by Corbin & colleagues is important and timely reading for educators and institutional leadership. It allows us to see the full extent of the challenge and to explore new pathways to address it in the AI & GenAI era.
Walter Claassen (SARUA Associate)
