Assessment Horizons conference 2025

In this session, colleagues from The Open University and NCFE reflect on the challenges and opportunities presented by generative AI technologies, building on findings from a research project and offering practical insights. This will include a focus on which assessment types are most vulnerable to generative AI and how assessments can be designed to best safeguard academic integrity. The session will:

• Highlight which assessment types are most vulnerable to generative AI and how to mitigate these risks to safeguard academic integrity.
• Provide recommendations about marker and learner training about generative AI use and misuse.
• Consider the impact of generative AI on the awarding sector from these and other findings.

This presentation will explore the intersection of AI and assessment through a unique student-led extra-curricular project conducted at University College Dublin's College of Engineering and Architecture.

The advent of mainstream gen-AI represents a paradigm shift in assessment practices. Students in the College of Engineering and Architecture were invited to participate in a podcast competition to investigate AI's impact across six different assessment types. Each student group researched, scripted, and hosted a podcast episode focusing on a specific assessment format, including: closed-book exams, lab reports, online exams, group projects, reflective assignments, and individual assignments.

Podcasting was seen as an appropriate medium for this project as it authentically captures the ‘student voice’ while simultaneously offering students the opportunity to develop new skills. The goal of the project was to provoke thoughtful discussion about the evolving landscape of assessment in higher education, enhancing assessment and AI literacy and emphasizing student perspectives and critical engagement with technological change.

There is a current dearth of sociological and empirically substantiated evidence as to what works with regards to equalizing the uneven educative experiences of racialized students in higher education. There are even fewer empirically substantiated answers to what works with regards to addressing the barriers specifically manifest within HE assessment and related practices that are experienced by domicile students of colour in UK Higher Education Providers (HEPs).

Drawing on the findings of the first holistic, large-scale, UK, multi-institution and mixed-methods evaluation of an intervention explicitly designed to reduce the racialised barriers that exist within HE assessment, presented in Dr Campbell's recent book 'Race and Assessment in Higher Education' (Emerald), this presentation explores the answers to these questions.

Utilising Ahmend and Cushing (2021) 'ideal student' frame, this talk shines light on the Racially Inclusive Practice in Assessment Guidance Intervention’s (RIPIAG) impact for improving:

• Teaching staff’s ability to identify and reduce the racialised inequities that are manifest in their assessment practice.
• Students from minority-ethnic backgrounds’ experiences of assessment.
• Its capacity to foster a reduction in the race award gap in student outcomes in assessment at the module level across all types of assessment in all disciplines.

In doing so, this presentation will provide a case-study example of how to move from sociological enquiry to measurable change.

The conference is being held at The Triangle Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8EA. Triangle is easily accessible via public transport. The building is situated 0.7 miles away (an 8 to 15 minute walk depending on your walking pace) from Cambridge Railway Station. The nearest parking facilities are:

• Cambridge Railway Station (0.7 miles)
• Cambridge Leisure Park (0.9 miles)
• Trumpington Park & Ride (3 miles)
• Babraham Road Park & Ride (3 miles)

By Air: Stansted Airport. Approx. 40 minutes drive to Cambridge Assessment.
By Coach/Bus: Stagecoach Cambus. Nearest bus stop: Brooklands Avenue, 5 minute walk.
By Taxi: Taxi drop off point is in front of main reception.

If you have a Blue Badge and require a parking space (we have a limited number available) please get in touch.

The in-person ticket price includes two days of keynote and breakout presentation sessions, taster CPD workshops as well as refreshments and lunch. Plus there will be an informal networking and drinks opportunity on the evening of the 29 April. 

In-person ticket holders will also get access to an online resource with videos from the conference after the event. 

The online ticket price includes access to a live stream of sessions throughout the event, with the opportunity to ask questions. 

All ticket holders will also have access to an online resource with videos from the conference after the event.

We have organised a discounted price at the Ibis Hotel Cambridge, which is about a 10-minute walk from our venue. The discounted price is £139, which includes breakfast and Wi-Fi. If you would like to reserve a place with this offer, please email us to be added to a list for accommodation, and please do so by 27 March at the latest. We will share your name and email address with the hotel, and they will contact you with a booking link no later than one month before the conference begins. 

Cancellation via the course booking portal or written notification of cancellation of the event booking within five working days of the event date will incur no charge. For cancellations made less than five working days prior to the event, the full event fee will be chargeable.

In-person attendees who wish to swap to an online place and receive a partial refund must do so by 4pm on Friday 18 April.

To enable us to offer your place to another delegate, please notify us of your cancellation as soon as possible.

Yes, in-person or online attendees can transfer their ticket to a colleague. If you wish to do this, the last date to let us know by is Friday 11 April. Please email thenetwork@cambridgeassessment.org.uk.

If you need to let us know about a specific dietary requirement, please log into the course booking portal, and choose 'Update details' from the left menu. Then update the information on your dietary requirements in your profile.