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.   

AI and Assessment Symposium, 1 April 2026

You are invited to submit an abstract and/or register for the Assessment in the Age of AI: Do’s, Don’ts and Don’t Knows for current practices symposium, co-hosted by the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University. This event will take place on 1st April 2026, from 09:00 to 16:00 at the Kramer Law Building at the University of Cape Town. This follows on the 2024 and 2025 AI and Assessment Symposiums.

The event has been designed around three themes as articulated in our recently published Do’s, Don’ts and Don’t Knows. Responding to AI in assessment in Universities: A Practical Guide for Lecturers. We invite abstracts that consider assessment in an AI enabled world from staff, student and institutional perspectives that identify:

1. Assessment practices and approaches which you feel confident to encourage.
   These are the “Do’s” that can be shared as emerging or even established good practices and can be in the form of case studies, empirical research or conceptual perspectives.
2. Assessment practices and approaches that you believe should be avoided.
   These are framed as “Don’ts” and we encourage proposals that reflect on lessons learned or initiatives that were not successful.
3. The wicked questions regarding assessment practices that you are unsure about.
   These are framed as “Don’t Knows” in that you can’t take a position yet given a lack of evidence or where there are conflicting views, experience or evidence. This may also include initiatives that are work in progress that don’t yet have a clear trajectory.

We particularly welcome abstracts that have critically engaged with the Do’s, Don’ts and Don’t Knows. Responding to AI in assessment in Universities: A Practical Guide for Lecturers and seek to extend, critique or dispute positions and so further enrich perspectives on AI and assessment.

Abstracts are due Mon 23 February 2026.

Registration is free and open until Fri 13 March 2026.

Please submit your abstract and/or register here.

If you would like to discuss anything further, please contact Sukaina Walji (sukaina.walji@uct.ac.za) or Sonja Strydom (sonjas@sun.ac.za).   

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. 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.

3. 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

4. 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

5. Papers

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

6. 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.