During my reflections on designing online courses for blended learning, I lighted on this piece in the University World News (Fataar 2025) which is spot on the question, “What should learning assessments look like in this AI era”? Dissecting what learning assessments should look like in this AI era, it advocates for a design-based pedagogy. So what is that?

 

 

 

In a design-based pedagogical framework, the assessment task is no longer a single product submitted at the end of a module, but a multi-layered developmental process. Learning is shown through a display of artefacts, provision of peer feedback and research notes, AI interaction logs, self-reflections, and oral presentations.

Fataar argues that pedagogical designs decentre the final product and foreground the learning journey instead. When learners are required to produce work across stages, such as brainstorming, feedback incorporation, reflective commentary, oral defence, or peer review, there is no single output to outsource. The assessment becomes an activity ecology, requiring cognitive and ethical presence throughout.

 

For instance, imagine a public health student designing a local campaign on vaccine hesitancy. The assessment begins with a contextual research report, followed by design mock-ups, a peer feedback session, and a final presentation that critically reflects how AI tools were used and evaluated in the process. Here, AI can be part of the toolbox to model audience reception or suggest design frameworks. Still, it cannot complete the task in isolation. The student’s learning process is being assessed, not the product alone.

 

Fataar (2025) and the 2017 book e-Learning Ecologies: Principles for new learning and assessment, edited by Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis, offers an opportunity to reposition AI as a partner in teaching and learning.

All reading and writing for this reflection were done on my small phone screen. Isn’t it amazing how flexible learning can be in this digital age. .