2025: ASCILITE 2025 Conference Companion Materials

The rapid rise of Generative AI (GenAI) tools is reshaping conversations about assessment and feedback in higher education. While much institutional attention focuses on detection, compliance, and academic integrity (Cotton et al., 2024)

The rapid rise of Generative AI (GenAI) tools is reshaping conversations about assessment and feedback in higher education. While much institutional attention focuses on detection, compliance, and academic integrity (Cotton et al., 2024), this presentation shifts the lens to educators and how they are actually using GenAI in assessment practice. We present findings from a grant-funded initiative at UNSW that explores educator-led innovation through a Postcards of Practice approach. The Postcards of Practice are one-page, practice-based narratives where educators document their use of GenAI tools. These postcards highlight applications including formative feedback generation, student prompting literacy, assessment redesign, and co-creation with AI. They reveal how educators are experimenting with GenAI to support student learning while navigating ethical concerns, transparency, and pedagogical alignment. Our study uses a qualitative interpretive methodology, combining thematic analysis of the postcards with follow-up interviews. The analysis draws on theoretical frameworks including feedback literacy (Carless & Boud, 2018), dialogic assessment (Nicol, 2010), and new paradigm feedback design (Winstone & Carless, 2020). We also apply institutional and national GenAI guidelines (Liu & Bridgeman, 2023; Perkins, 2023) to surface shared values such as authenticity, inclusivity, and responsible innovation that guide educators’ decisions. The aim of this study is to explore how educators are experimenting with GenAI in assessment and feedback, and to capture their emerging practices and reflections through the Postcards of Practice initiative. The central research question guiding this work is: How are educators integrating GenAI into assessment and feedback, and what opportunities, challenges, and support needs arise from these practices? This work advances Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) by providing empirical insights into how GenAI is actually integrated at the coalface of teaching. Educators describe how GenAI supports more frequent, personalised feedback and builds student agency in learning. At the same time, they raise concerns about over-reliance, AI hallucination, and the need for clear pedagogical scaffolding. These reflections point to the need for professional development that is discipline-sensitive, responsive, and grounded in practice. The postcard approach also functions as a professional learning intervention. It prompts reflection, encourages cross-disciplinary dialogue, and helps build a local community of practice around GenAI use. Through this model, we demonstrate an innovative and scalable method of capturing and supporting TEL innovation in real time. The findings suggest GenAI is prompting a rethinking of assessment: from summative, compliance-driven models to more transparent, formative, and student-centred designs. Educators begin to embed feedback literacy, ethical AI use, and critical prompting into their teaching, with clear implications for program-level assessment and graduate capability development. To strengthen clarity, we propose a concise diagram mapping the emerging practices captured in the postcards against the theoretical frameworks of feedback literacy, dialogic assessment, and new paradigm feedback design. This visual representation illustrates how practical insights align with, extend, or challenge these frameworks, making the study’s contribution accessible across diverse tertiary contexts. This proposal offers exemplary innovation in TEL by foregrounding bottom-up, practice-led experimentation with GenAI. It is grounded in strong theoretical frameworks and applicable across diverse tertiary contexts. The Pecha Kucha format will present key insights through rich visual storytelling, including excerpts from the postcards themselves. We conclude by proposing future directions for research and institutional strategy, including how to embed GenAI into assessment ecosystems in ways that enhance learning, uphold integrity, and empower educators to lead digital transformation from within.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) presents a profound challenge for designing and implementing authentic tertiary assessment. The rapid adoption of platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT has intensified concerns about assessment

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) presents a profound challenge for designing and implementing authentic tertiary assessment. The rapid adoption of platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT has intensified concerns about assessment validity and integrity (Namoun et al., 2024). These concerns are particularly salient in health science (HS) programs, where excessive reliance on Gen-AI may undermine the development of clinical reasoning and decision-making competencies, affecting professional readiness and patient safety. This presentation reports on a project employing a three-cycle action research methodology to enhance responsiveness to Gen-AI–related assessment challenges. Cycle 1 involved developing an innovative Assessment Appraisal Tool aligned with national and institutional integrity guidelines (Flinders University, 2023; Lodge et al., 2023a, 2023b; Monash University, 2023; TEQSA, 2022; Torrens University, n.d.). The tool assigns an AI risk score (out of 30) indicating the likelihood that an assessment could be generated by Gen-AI and was piloted across three foundational HS subjects. Cycle 2 refined the tool based on feedback and extended its application to additional HS subjects, identifying targeted strategies for redesign. Cycle 3, currently underway, implements and evaluates these redesigns to improve authenticity, learning, and academic integrity. We will also discuss the emerging theoretical links between this project and programmatic assessment design. We will conclude by considering the strategic and practical meeting points where this project may align with future institution-wide programmatic assessment design strategies, addressing the ongoing challenges of Gen-AI while ensuring assessment of learning.

A digital twin avatar (synthetic self, personalised virtual avatar, AI clone) is created and controlled by the person it represents, aiming to be an ethical use of deepfake technology (Altuncu et al., 2024). In higher education (HE), these

A digital twin avatar (synthetic self, personalised virtual avatar, AI clone) is created and controlled by the person it represents, aiming to be an ethical use of deepfake technology (Altuncu et al., 2024). In higher education (HE), these avatars can be used to deliver asynchronous video lectures, raising issues around ownership and representation. There are currently no HE policies in Australia that govern the use and control of digital twin lecturers who look and sound like real academics. While digital twins offer benefits such as low-cost and multilingual educational content, deepfakes pose risks including cyberbullying, reputational harm, and academic dishonesty (Roe et al., 2024). The panel will rely on audience input (bring your device) to discuss the pros and cons around the emotionally charged topic of replacing real lecturers with their AI generated digital twins. Draft guidelines for using digital twin lecturers in HE will be presented.

Higher education faces unprecedented assessment challenges from emerging technologies and academic misconduct. Interactive oral assessments (IOAs) provide a viable solution as real-time, dialogic assessments where students demonstrate

Higher education faces unprecedented assessment challenges from emerging technologies and academic misconduct. Interactive oral assessments (IOAs) provide a viable solution as real-time, dialogic assessments where students demonstrate understanding, critical thinking, and communication skills through two-way spoken interaction. This assessment type strengthens academic integrity while improving student engagement and learning outcomes. This panel showcases IOA implementation across diverse contexts—biological and health sciences, clinical training, business education, and creative arts—spanning all undergraduate years with varied formats. Our collective experience covers cohorts from 20 to 600+ students, delivered in-person and online. The panel addresses practical implementation challenges: scheduling, staffing, technological requirements, consistency, accessibility, student preparedness, and anxiety management. Attendees will participate in hands-on IOA activities, share experiences, and gain concrete implementation strategies while building connections with fellow educators exploring assessment innovation.

Every one of us has encountered times of change and disruption in our work, our institutions, and our world that challenge and reshape how we teach, learn, and lead. This panel explores how university learning and teaching professional

Every one of us has encountered times of change and disruption in our work, our institutions, and our world that challenge and reshape how we teach, learn, and lead. This panel explores how university learning and teaching professional development is sustained and reimagined in such times. Drawing upon the panellists’ experiences we ask: How do we adapt, and what enables us to thrive? Through collaborative autoethnographic reflection, we examine disruptions at the micro (individual), meso (institutional), and macro (sector and global) levels. These reflections have served not only as a method of inquiry but also as a means of resilience and renewal. Our discussion highlights the tensions and possibilities that emerge when professional development intersects with uncertainty, and how reflective collaboration can foster adaptability, community, and innovation. This session invites audience participation to collectively explore how we might shape more sustainable and inclusive futures for professional development in higher education.

The symposium will explore ways of better understanding, challenging and expanding the ways that its diverse users think about and use generative AI in higher education, to best respond to our emerging opportunities to achieve AI ethical

The symposium will explore ways of better understanding, challenging and expanding the ways that its diverse users think about and use generative AI in higher education, to best respond to our emerging opportunities to achieve AI ethical and pedagogical best practice. The symposium features a discussion between a range of AI in education experts, and session attendees, guided by key questions on how to achieve the best possible use of AI in education. These questions include how to best bring together technological and human interfaces, and how to best use generative AI in education practice. This could include by strategically expanding its current uses to help it improve whole student education, as well as academic education. Student engagement, wellbeing and motivation could be strategically improved via identifying current levels of, and potential improvements in, student and staff knowledge of and attitudes towards educational uses of AI.

This panel challenges the persistent framing of third space professionals as research support rather than research leaders. Grounded in Whitchurch’s third space theory, Wenger’s communities of practice, and Boyer’s model of scholarship, we

This panel challenges the persistent framing of third space professionals as research support rather than research leaders. Grounded in Whitchurch’s third space theory, Wenger’s communities of practice, and Boyer’s model of scholarship, we examine how structured mentoring through the 2025 ASCILITE Community Mentoring Program (CMP), the Research Mentorship Program for Third Space in partnership with the Learning Design SIG, enables learning designers and academic developers to engage in sustained scholarly inquiry. Panel contributors will share narratives of identity transformation, research emergence, and boundary-crossing practices that illuminate both enablers and constraints shaping third space scholarship. We propose that third space professionals are uniquely positioned to lead educational transformation through practice-based inquiry. Through facilitated dialogue, attendees will surface institutional conditions and co-develop strategies to sustain scholarly development. By reconceptualising mentoring as a community of practice, this panel demonstrates how CMP fosters the shift from peripheral participation to active scholarly leadership.

Learning design as a profession remains in a liminal space, increasingly central to digital education yet without the formal recognition or collective voice enjoyed by other professional domains. This panel addresses the current lack of

Learning design as a profession remains in a liminal space, increasingly central to digital education yet without the formal recognition or collective voice enjoyed by other professional domains. This panel addresses the current lack of shared professional standards by asking: What values, practices and indicators of quality might form the basis of a professional standards framework for learning designers? Drawing on established models from education and technology professions, and sociological theories of professionalisation, the panel invites ASCILITE participants to collaboratively explore what such a framework might look like, how it should be developed, and why it matters. Through guided provocations and participatory workshop activities, attendees will help shape a draft map of core values, domains of practice and levels of expertise, forming the foundation for further community-led work.

This panel explores the lived experience of cross-institutional collaboration in a major multi-university research initiative investigating students’ perspectives on generative AI in higher education. Bringing together researchers from

This panel explores the lived experience of cross-institutional collaboration in a major multi-university research initiative investigating students’ perspectives on generative AI in higher education. Bringing together researchers from four leading Australian universities, the project exemplifies how sector-wide partnerships can overcome institutional silos, foster methodological innovation, and generate richer, more inclusive insights. Panellists will reflect on the benefits, challenges, and transformative potential of working collaboratively at scale, offering practical strategies and provocations for others seeking to harness collective wisdom in response to sector-wide challenges.

Higher education faces declining student engagement, resulting in poor motivation and course completion rates. Students struggle with workload management, social disconnection, and limited meaningful interactions with instructors and peers

Higher education faces declining student engagement, resulting in poor motivation and course completion rates. Students struggle with workload management, social disconnection, and limited meaningful interactions with instructors and peers (Naylor et al, 2017). These challenges are intensified in digital learning environments where isolation is common. Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven nudging systems offer potential solutions through timely, personalised feedback to improve motivation, increase behavioural engagement, and reduce dropout rates by restoring connection and teacher presence. This panel examines tensions surrounding persuasive AI through the EngageAI project, which uses persuasive AI technology to deliver personalised behavioural nudges to enhance student’s learning experience. Four panellists will discuss: Does AI nudging's technical promise translate into meaningful outcomes? Are we empowering learners or creating algorithmic dependency? Can persuasive AI survive institutional constraints like budget limitations, privacy policies, and educational conservatism? The panel explores whether AI nudging represents adaptive learning's future or technological control over student behaviour.

The ongoing expansion of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has created an unprecedented level of uncertainty about learning and teaching practice in the tertiary

The ongoing expansion of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has created an unprecedented level of uncertainty about learning and teaching practice in the tertiary education sector. The rapid pace of change and the steady release of new tools and functionalities have made staying informed a challenge for time-poor educators, students, institutional leaders and third space practitioners. This light-hearted panel discussion aims to alleviate some of this stress by showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of some of the leading GenAI platforms by comparing their performance when tasked with a selection of learning and teaching-related use cases. Our goal for the session is to provide attendees with an opportunity to discuss the important characteristics of useful GenAI applications as we test and develop an assessment rubric for the output from the bots and evaluate the tools together.

The sudden emergence and unprecedented growth of GenAI tools in the higher education landscape presents educators with new and significant challenges. In the face of these, we argue that educators should move from prohibition to supporting

The sudden emergence and unprecedented growth of GenAI tools in the higher education landscape presents educators with new and significant challenges. In the face of these, we argue that educators should move from prohibition to supporting students to learn through collaboration with GenAI, but that their own values towards assessment and AI are central to this shift. This workshop will build on an assessment typology developed by the authors. The typology has been designed to assist educators to identify and communicate authorised GenAI use, and to build assessments that identify and prescribe appropriate student use of GenAI tools. Participants will leverage GenAI tools to reflect on their own biases and practices related to assessment design and GenAI. This reflective approach encourages educators to explicitly articulate aims for student learning as well as their own values for assessment design. The hands-on workshop will offer participants opportunities to deepen their teaching practice, while refining assessments relevant to their own teaching contexts. The design and delivery of the workshop will draw on the hosts’ experiences providing professional development workshops in their home institution that have introduced staff to GenAI tools, challenges and uses; teaching practice; assessment design; and student feedback literacy.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergence of generative AI has created significant upheaval for Australian tertiary education. This uncertainty has been exacerbated by policy uncertainty both globally and within the Australian

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergence of generative AI has created significant upheaval for Australian tertiary education. This uncertainty has been exacerbated by policy uncertainty both globally and within the Australian context. In alignment with the conference theme, this workshop will explore what it means to educate in an era of continuous change. The workshop will adopt a format built on Klein's (1998) decision-making methodologies. There will be two phases: the first will focus on mapping future scenarios for Australian tertiary education, and the second will focus on what needs to occur now, particularly in terms of changes to practice. Participants will gain collective insight into future trajectories for tertiary education and develop practical approaches for adapting teaching and learning accordingly.