How can we guarantee the integrity and authenticity of assessment, especially in the wake of issues like Generative AI?
Introduction and Context
UNIwise recently circulated our Survey report white paper, which discussed the most prominent takeaways from our widely contributed-to 2024 Annual Survey.
This blog post marks the first of a new series that seeks to reflect on the key takeaways from the Survey report, and up first are the issues of authentic assessment, academic integrity, and the rise of Generative AI.
Authentic assessment has been a prominent topic in recent years, as academics seek to create more realistic and contextualised assessments, whereas maintaining academic integrity shifts the focus to preventing cheating in exams. One major issue, however, is that the rise of issues such as Generative AI have threatened the authenticity and integrity of assessments as of late.
Today, therefore, UNIwise asks the question: “How can we guarantee the integrity and authenticity of assessments, especially in the wake of issues like Generative AI?”
In this article, we’ll be highlighting the myriad of ways that a digital assessment platform like WISEflow, which UNIwise provides to some of the leading institutions across Europe, can provide features that promote authenticity and flexibility in assessments, while providing universities with surefire methods of preventing academic misconduct. These features offer meaningful solutions to key issues seen across the sector today, such as the use of AI tools like ChatGPT.
How and why were academic integrity, authentic assessment and Generative AI discussed throughout the UNIwise Annual Survey?
Each stage of the Annual Survey sought to identify opinions on key assessment and administration issues. This involved both asking respondents to rate a list of topics on what they had found the most challenging, as well as asking them to give single-line answers to questions which asked for more direct opinions.
In the sections which offered a long list of issues to rate, the topic that was most prevalently identified as challenging was “Authentic assessment” - closely followed by “maintaining academic integrity.” This second option will have been submitted by a number of respondents within the lens of Generative AI, since these tools have been perceived as a threat to academic integrity as their use increases.
The questions in which we asked respondents to give single line answers were:
“If you had a magic wand, what one change would you make at your institution regarding assessment?”
“What do you think is going to be the biggest factor influencing the direction of assessment in the future?”
Again, these topics cropped up numerous times. Some examples from respondents include:
“A reliable means of flagging GenAI content”
“GDPR compliant proctoring including AI-support”
“Generative AI. Assessment will need to be completely redesigned to lessen the risk of AI based plagiarism”
“AI assisted assessment tools”
“It feels like a cheap answer, but Generative AI is obviously going to be considerably disruptive. More mechanisms to support authentic assessments”
“Greater use of frequent formative assessments over heavily weighted closed book summative exams”
The above statements are just a selection from a larger bank of answers that discussed these topics in detail. As such, it became clear to us that professionals from across the higher education space are asking themselves questions, such as “How can we guarantee the integrity and authenticity of assessments, especially in the wake of Generative AI?”
It’s evident that, across Europe, people are grappling with this issue. If we can dive deeper into what these problems entail, and explore realistic solutions, we may see these issues appear as less challenging in the 2025 Annual Survey.
Understanding the issues in context
So, why are authentic assessment, academic integrity and Generative AI on everyone’s lips at the moment?
Firstly, what is authentic assessment? It isn’t a new term – Verónica Villarroel at the Center for Research and Improvement of Education in Chile says that authenticity has been identified as a key characteristic of assessment design, promoting learning. In fact, academics have been searching for ways to create more realistic and contextualised assessments for years. The thought is that these may better evaluate a students’ ability to apply knowledge in scenarios that more closely resemble real-life.
Academic integrity is a topic that anyone in higher education is familiar with. Exams and assessments can be fair, but they can also fall foul of cheating and plagiarism. As society develops, so does the potential methodology behind cheating – and so the ability to protect an exam's integrity must grow along with this. Where previously we had students writing the answers on the back of their hands, we now see students letting family members or friends sit remote exams for them.
And of course, we don’t need to tell you why Generative AI is such a hot topic at the moment. Tools such as ChatGPT turned the academic (and wider!) world on its head when it arrived with a bang in late '22/early ‘23. When a tool exists that can write a history paper in a matter of seconds, what are academics to do? And how are institutions meant to cope with the growing tide of artificially generated content?
This is where these topics become intrinsically linked. HE professionals want to maintain the integrity of their exams – but AI can now generate convincing answers to previously fool-proof question types. A simple essay question such as “What caused the Russian revolution” is now not necessarily suitable as a take-home task, or even as an onsite one provided students have unmonitored access to the internet.
What can institutions do to make assessments authentic and maintain their integrity? And how can they work to withstand the oncoming tide of Generative AI tools?
What can institutions do, and what tools can they use to do it?
The most foolproof method of circumventing these problems is by implementing an end-to-end digital assessment solution at your institution. Our platform, WISEflow, is designed to address a whole host of issues through the many invaluable features it offers.
1. Authentic Assessment
WISEflow provides universities with the tools to design more authentic and varied assessment types that reflect real-world applications of knowledge. This includes options such as open-book assessments, which focus on students' ability to apply and analyze information rather than just memorize facts. In addition, reflective portfolios have been used by institutions like the University of Portsmouth to track students’ progress over time, promoting deep engagement with learning material while also simulating professional practices.
There are even specific FLOWtypes that cater for diversified assessment methods. FLOWoral, FLOWseries and FLOWcombine are all WISEflow features that incorporate aspects like audio, video and more to increase the authenticity of the exams that students can sit.
Moreover, WISEflow facilitates instant feedback, a critical component of authentic assessment that helps students continuously learn and improve. By receiving timely feedback, students can better understand their strengths and areas for improvement, aligning their learning with real-world expectations. This continuous engagement with learning material can be a strong deterrent to academic dishonesty, as it shifts the focus from high-stakes, one-time assessments to a more holistic and formative learning process.
2. Maintaining Academic Integrity
Maintaining academic integrity is an ongoing challenge for universities, especially in a digital-first world where remote exams are becoming increasingly common. WISEflow offers several advanced features to ensure that exams remain secure and fair, regardless of the environment in which they are taken.
The Lockdown Browser prevents students from opening other applications or browsing the internet during assessments, effectively reducing opportunities for cheating.
The Device Monitor is an exciting invigilation tool that supports assessments which are delivered without the lockdown browser. It takes images of each participant’s device screen during an assessment, which means institutions can be assured that despite an assessment being delivered outside a locked-down environment, students’ work can still be monitored.
For distance exams, WISEflow also provides remote proctoring capabilities. This helps universities uphold the highest standards of academic integrity, even when students are taking exams from home.
Furthermore, WISEflow Originality offers similarity reports at the point of marking for assessors, reviewers and managers. Documents which are indexed are added to a database and can be searched against, preventing plagiarism
By combining these tools – and the many more offered – WISEflow helps institutions maintain the integrity of assessments while providing the flexibility to accommodate diverse learning environments.
3. Mitigating the Impact of Generative AI
As Generative AI tools become more accessible, universities must rethink traditional assessment models that may be vulnerable to AI-driven plagiarism or unauthorized assistance. One effective way to address this is by shifting away from assessments that rely solely on content recall or standard essay formats, which are easily replicated by AI, and instead embracing more formative assessment types.
With WISEflow, educators can create assessments that require higher-order thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills—areas where AI-generated content is less effective. As mentioned regarding authentic assessment, frequent formative assessments such as reflective portfolios, open-book exams or scenario-based questions demand critical analysis and personal reflection, making it difficult for AI tools to produce convincing answers. Additionally, by incorporating more collaborative and ongoing assessment models, educators can make it harder for AI tools to undermine the learning process.
Concluding Remarks
Let’s face it: Generative AI isn’t going anywhere, and academics are going to continue to grapple with maintaining the integrity of their exams and promoting their authenticity. But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost – in fact, it’s quite the contrary.
A robust, flexible and scalable digital assessment platform like WISEflow can offer the features and functionalities your institution needs to prepare itself for the future of assessment – and all the requirements that will come with this.
Rasmus Blok, our Chief Product Officer here at UNIwise, had this to say: “Our annual survey highlighted in a very consistent and informative manner some of the most prevalent issues that HEIs are struggling with today. WISEflow might not be the ONLY answer, but it is certainly designed towards, and capable of, mitigating these problems and helping institutions to address them both now and in the future.”
If you’re interested in learning more about Europe’s leading digital assessment platform, you can request a demo of WISEflow here – or get in touch with us at hello@uniwise.eu