Establishing a delicate balance in the relationship between artificial intelligence and authentic assessment in student learning

Abstract

Across the past few decades, a gamut of technologies has emerged and been adopted as part of enabling student learning. These technologies and digital tools have been explored in terms of their affordances and their limitations during implementation in teaching practices. Teachers have actively worked to balance how a technology serves as a vehicle for learning against the challenges that are introduced through its implementation. In recent years, due to our increased reliance on digital tools and online learning environments, our education communities have first railed against, and then rallied for, each appearance of a new website, tool or platform. Whilst initial reactions can be negative (such as that recently observed on the appearance of the artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot tool ChatGPT), many teachers will progress towards adoption of technologies in their practices once the affordances have been teased out. In some ways, as an analogy, teaching practice could be considered as an equilibrium reaction responding to the pressures of change. In this Editorial, I recognise that teachers are adaptive and creative therefore research that evidences authentic practice using AI to support student learning will increase. In parallel, as a journal, we are facing new challenges relating to the role of AI in authorship and peer review, most publishers are grappling with establishing their position on any authorship that involves AI generated text.