Exploring the Potential of AI for Authentic Assessment in Education: Towards a New Model of Interaction

This chapter promotes an overview of authentic assessment in connection with Artificial Intelligence (AI) use, starting from a focus on the importance of introducing authentic assessment approaches to sustain students’ formative experience as lifelong assessors. The first part will provide an evidence-based literature review of authentic assessment features, with a subsequent attention to the specificity of Large Language Models (LLMs) and their power in education as possible assistants for teachers in time-consuming tasks, starting from a suitable pedagogical and technical framework. The concept of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) will be explored, in relation to assessment and feedback practice. It supports the power of AI in teaching as a system that could help open up teaching and learning opportunities, question conventional pedagogies, assist teachers in becoming more effective, monitoring student progress, giving them tailored feedback. The third part will discuss the AI-Mediated Assessment for Academics and Students (AI-MAAS) model, designed starting from JISC and UNESCO guidelines, in terms of theoretical creation and practical application in the design of the assessment processes in Higher Education. A critical perspective about the implementation of AI in assessment through the AI-MAAS model, exploring benefits and challenges will be proposed. Concrete teaching, learning and assessment design examples and practical scenarios will be discussed, to sustain academics in their daily challenges and their redesign actions, touching also challenges related to AI educational applications in assessment and feedback in Higher Education.