[csaa-forum] VU Academic Integrity & Assessment Security Symposium, 21 November

[Tom Clark]

 Dear Colleagues,
  
Academic integrity is an enduring value of universities, a critical element of why tertiary education matters. Some critical developments in recent years have raised questions about how we assure and secure student learning and promote the 'why' of academic integrity beyond the mysteries of citation techniques. Artificial intelligence has changed the possibilities of authorship, creativity, learning tools, and the expectations of employers. This prompts both familiar and new questions about the assessment relationship between students and educators and introduces new questions around levelling the playing field for students from diverse backgrounds. The last decade has seen the emergence of international criminal organisations offering contract cheating services, which is an industry grounded in encouraging students to cheat, preying on vulnerable students and utilising technology to do so.

Generative AI in the education space is also a valuable opportunity to engage in critical thinking about how we conceptualise learning, the process of learning and what we are assessing. How we address Generative AI necessitates a paradigm shift; redefining our understandings of learning and assessment in ways that will be positive and constructive for teachers and students. If there are tools to assist students for whom English is a second, third or fourth language, how different is this than those used in language schools or by travellers? Does this shift the language of instruction, or assist students to navigate?

This symposium is a half-day event for leading national voices along with practitioners and stakeholders to ask: what are the consequences of shifting academic integrity terrains for people involved in university governance? Do these emerging technologies and new challenges to assessment security oblige us to reconsider our roles and our practices in assessment design in the courses we offer? What are our responsibilities to students, to teachers and other staff, to the employers of our graduates, and to the broader community? What new forms of investigation are required for assessment security?

This topic is increasingly prominent in academic governance deliberations around the country. It has become a focal point for Australia's Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) as it monitors, and importantly, partners with the sector in fulfilment of the Higher Education Standards Framework. Similarly, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) is concerned to ensure that certification of learners is safeguarded, and learning is assured. 'If only schools did.' just what in this space? Jurisdictions have varied, and this forum looks to learn from the perspectives of secondary school educators. 

EVENT DETAILS
Tuesday 21 November 2023
1:00pm - 5:30pm
VU City Precinct, Heritage Building, ROGL02, 295 Queen Street, Melbourne

RSVP - Please let us know if you will attend:
https://engage.vu.edu.au/pub/pubType/EO/pubID/zzzz651a44ed62a61930/interface.html 
 
Please contact <gov.sec at vu.edu.au> should you have any questions. 

We look forward to your attendance!