Postcards of practice

Educator insights on GenAI in assessment and feedback

Abstract

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.