The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) has signalled that the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools means that Australian higher education providers should move to programmatic approaches to assessment.
For this systemic change to be successful, students need support in how to self-regulate their learning. This refers to their capacity to monitor their motivation, cognition, and behaviour when studying. Building these skills starts in childhood, but universities play an important role in developing them too.
Self-regulation means students need to engage actively in regular forms of feedback, which is an “essential” component to self-regulated learning in programmatic assessment. This won’t be easy—research shows many students find it difficult to seek feedback and action it in programmatic assessment settings.
They also need advice and guidance in using AI appropriately. A recent survey of 8,000 Australian university students found that over 80% are already using it for study, and 40% have used it in assessments in which they were not allowed.
These are major challenges. The good news is that many higher education institutions already have teams of experts in student learning and support that can play a leading role in meeting them.
Academic language and learning advisers
Academic language and learning (ALL) advisers are professional educators that support thousands of higher education students across Australia every year to learn and communicate in academic settings.
They help develop student capabilities to study effectively, write academically, and work mathematically. They also help students become independent learners, which will be essential to the success of programmatic assessment at-scale.
To support programmatic assessment, ALL advisers will need to adapt practices quickly so that the student support they provide is complemented by AI and not in competition with it. For instance, AI models like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini can already provide much of the individual support functions that ALL advisers have traditionally provided to students.
AI advice might not be as given as expertly as ALL advisers, but the advice is certainly provided more efficiently and capable of doing so at-scale.
Prioritising different areas of practice will enable greater space for ALL advisers to support universities meet the challenges associated with programmatic approaches to assessment.
Building AI literacy
Australian university students have already said they don’t think they’re getting enough support from their universities with using AI appropriately.
To support effective engagement with AI in programmatic assessment, students will need specific support to develop their critical thinking skills in designing prompts and evaluating AI outputs. ALL advisers have long supported students in developing their critical thinking and can now apply this expertise to an AI-context.
In collaboration with librarians, ALL advisers are also well placed to guide students and staff as to how AI tools could be used for learning purposes.
This can include designing prompts for brainstorming and exam revision, but could also extend to prompt design for gathering actionable feedback on a writing draft.
Embedding in curriculum
Working in partnership with academic staff, ALL advisers often embed academic skills development in the curriculum through scaffolded learning activities and formative assessment design.
Many studies have already explored the benefits of embedding academic skills development in the curriculum—but some academics may need more support in how to develop these skills effectively in their discipline.
To support the development of self-regulation and AI literacy, there must be even more collaboration between ALL advisers and academic staff to embed these skills in the curriculum.
As experts in student learning, they can guide educators on how students can become independent learners in their course and actively engage with the feedback they receive.
Fostering peer connections
Building strong connections between peers will be a critical component of a high-quality learning experience in programmatic assessment settings, but universities currently find it challenging to do this well.
The 2023 Quality Indicators in Learning and Teaching Student Experience Survey found that opportunities for students to interact with other students outside of formal study requirements was the lowest rated score in the peer engagement category.
Many ALL advisers currently lead or work closely with peer assisted learning programs, but in an AI-world they need to do more of it—and at a larger scale.
ALL advisers can recruit, train, and quality assure these types of programs at-scale, as well as act as a conduit between academic staff and student leaders to coordinate programs.
Facilitating peer learning activities is not a task that AI currently does well at all. Overseeing these programs provides another important area in which ALL advisers can deliver a unique contribution to student learning in a programmatic assessment environment.
Dr Andrew Kelly is the Manager, Learning Support at Edith Cowan University and the current President of the Association for Academic Language and Learning. His views are entirely his own.
