Enhancing Assessment Literacy and Practices in the Age of AI Project

The Enhancing Assessment Literacy and Practices in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Project is being conducted from 2024 to 2026. The project aims to develop the capacity of UCT staff to deploy and use appropriate AI and related digital tools/methodologies to enhance assessment practices in support of UCT’s new assessment policy. The project is funded by a University Capacity Development Grant (UCDG), and is led by Sukaina Walji.

The project team works in conjunction with faculty representatives from the Assessment Framework Working Group (AFWG) and the AI Working Group at UCT. Project Team members included:

• Ms Sukaina Walji - CILT
• Ms Sanet Steyn - CEA
• Professor Francois Cilliers - Faculty of Health Sciences
• Dr Cheng-Wen Huang - CILT
• Ms Soraya Lester – CILT

This project seeks to build assessment and AI literacy and agency of teaching staff in order to implement the principles of assessment as envisioned in the recently re-developed assessment policy, to build the capacity of teaching staff to understand and apply AI tools in assessment designs that support student learning, meet academic integrity considerations and respond to the evolving professional and disciplinary landscape where the integration of such tools is becoming standard practice. This includes the ability to evaluate, integrate and deploy tools for assessment activities such as review, marking, feedback, automated tutoring and to improve accessibility while promoting efficiency.  

The project speaks to Vision 2030’s imperative for developing staff as university teachers who are capacitated to deploy cutting-edge digital tools and methodologies in their assessment practices as appropriate to their discipline, which in turn contributes to the learning of their students. The project builds on existing emergent work in these areas in the institution, providing targeted resourcing as part of the implementation of the new assessment policy.   

1. Do’s, Don’ts and Don’t Knows. Responding to AI in assessment in Universities: A Practical Guide for Lecturers   

The project team in collaboration with colleagues from Stellenbosch University worked together as a group of educational advisors to develop a set of guidelines for lecturers using the heuristic of do’s, don’ts and don’t knows. These guidelines draw on our collective practical experience in working with and supporting teaching staff with assessment design that respond to the prevalence and take-up of generative AI.

This guide therefore represents the authors’ consolidated view of the state of play regarding assessment practices in Higher Education at this time, and foreground what assessment practitioners need to be aware of and be prepared to enact in the age of AI. A copy of the guide is available here.

2. Start with Outcomes. Framework for purposive assessment redesign in an age of AI: A Practice Guide.

The project team have developed a second guide for those rethinking assessment in the age of AI. This guide introduces you to practical tools including a typology that will facilitate a critical review of the relevance of your learning outcomes, as well as a framework for exploring redesign possibilities. In the process, you will consider how assessment can both leverage and ethically navigate AI, moving beyond anxiety-driven safeguards toward creative, critical, and principled responses. A copy of the guide is available here.

3. AI in Assessment Case Studies

There’s a growing range of examples of how academics and teaching staff are already adapting or redesigning their assessments in response to AI, with some sharing these as case studies below. Contact details for the contributing academic are included in each case study should you want to reach out for further query. If you have a case study you would like to contribute please contact Soraya Lester.

4. AI and Assessment Symposium, 3 April 2025

The Assessment in the Age of AI: Principles, Practices, and Innovations for the Future of Learning symposium was co-hosted by the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University and took place on the 3rd of April 2025 at the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking Afrika. You can find the event programme here.

Listen to Sukaina Walji and Francois Cilliers who sat down to share their key takeaways and reflections from the symposium in a thought-provoking podcast episode here.

5. AI and Assessment Symposium, 1 April 2026

The Assessment in the Age of AI: Do’s, Don’ts and Don’t Knows for current practices symposium was co-hosted by the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University and took place on 1st April 2026 at the Kramer Law Building at the University of Cape Town. You can find the event programme here and some of the presentations from the event here.

6. Presentations (please request access)

• Assessment in the Age of AI: Principles, Practices, and Innovations for the 2025 presentations.
• Assessment in the age of AI: Contemplations and Innovations Symposium Stellenbosch University 2024:
  • Navigating a new terrain: university students’ engagement with genAI in assessment support through the lens of the Fraud Diamond Framework
  • AI’s curveball: Is the problem with assessment or with our learning outcomes?
• Assessment in Higher Education Network 2025: Shaping Assessment Culture Through Policy Development: A Case Study of the University of Cape Town's Ongoing Journey
• Education After the Algorithm Symposium 2025: Designing Equitable Assessment Futures: Lessons from Students’ use of Generative AI
• AMUCMCON 2025: Revolutionizing Medical Education with AI: From Simulations to Personalized Learning

7. Teaching Resources

• Case studies (in development) with staff on their use of AI tools in assessment for the Good Practices for Assessment Guide and Interactive Guide
• Assessment Studio

8. Papers

• Student use of genAI for assessment and learning explained using the COM-B model (in development)

9. Reports

• Uses of AI tools in assessment by UCT staff - survey results (see here).

If you would like to learn more about the project or reach a project member, please contact Soraya Lester who will assist you.