Today I'm talking with Danny Liu about assessment in the age of AI. So far, the idea of a 'traffic light' approach to assessment has been gaining traction in higher education in response to the widespread availability of generative AI. Using the traffic light metaphor, assignments are colour coded according to the level of AI use deemed to be permissible. However, as these systems rely solely on student self report on the level of AI use, Danny argues that there is a danger that they lose their value as valid assessment tools.

Danny talks us through the two-lane approach to assessment that has been adopted at the University of Sydney, distinguishing between 'Lane One' supervised assessments aimed at measuring student capability and 'Lane Two' assessments that encourage learning and engagement with AI. We talk through the process of making structural assessment changes, responses from academics, retaining student engagement, and a range of other topics.

Danny is a molecular biologist by training, programmer by night, researcher and faculty developer by day, and educator at heart. A multiple international and national teaching award winner, he works at the confluence of artificial intelligence, student engagement, and educational technology. A Professor of Educational Technologies at the University of Sydney, he co-chairs the University's AI in Education working group, and leads the Cogniti.ai initiative that puts educators in the driver's seat of AI.

Find Danny on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannydotliu/ and check out the University of Sydney’s AI for Educators resource page at https://canvas.sydney.edu.au/courses/63765

Corbin, T., Dawson, P. and Liu, D. (2025) ‘Talk is cheap: why structural assessment changes are needed for a time of GenAI’, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, pp. 1–11. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2025.2503964.

Liu, D. (2025). A "two lane" approach to assessment in the age of AI: Balancing integrity with relevance. Digitally Enhanced Education Webinars. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf8-b1H3qOU [accessed 16th May 2025]

Liu, D., and A. Bridgeman. (2023). “What to Do about Assessments If we Can’t out-Design or out-Run AI? Teaching@Sydney.” https://educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au/teaching%40sydney/what-to-do-about-assessments-if-we-cant-out-design-or-out-run-ai/

Today I’m talking to Michael Gerlich about his recent study on the potential effects on AI on critical thinking. While much ink has been spilt discussing the value of the traditional essay in a post GPT landscape, much of the conversation has focused on assessment and questions of authorship. Perhaps unsurprisingly, less time has been given to the impact on the learning process itself. The phrase ‘I write to know what I think’ alludes to the value of putting one’s ideas under the microscope, and of sometimes having to rethink cherished beliefs as we spell them out to ourselves at sentence level. If we outsource this process to ChatGPT, are we losing something valuable? We talk through Michael’s data, his own interpretations, and continue the conversation on whether generative AI is ‘just another tool’, or something more.

Guest bio

Prof. Dr Michael Gerlich is Professor of Management and Head of Centre for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability at SBS Swiss Business School, a Swiss University of Applied Sciences Institute. His academic and professional work focuses on the societal implications of artificial intelligence, change management, and strategic foresight, with a particular interest in bridging research and practice in both policy and business settings.

With prior experience in government advisory and leadership roles across Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East, he has supported a range of public and private institutions in matters related to economic development, export strategy, and organisational transformation. His research on artificial intelligence has addressed topics such as cognitive offloading, critical thinking, and the ethical dimensions of technology in education and society. His work has been mentioned globally by media including Forbes, Financial Times, The Economist and many more.

Prof. Gerlich has contributed to academic and public debates through his writing and through speaking engagements at international conferences, including events hosted by the United Nations. He holds full, visiting and affiliated teaching roles in Zurich, London (LSE), and Cambridge (ARU), and remains actively involved in interdisciplinary work at the intersection of technology, sociology and human behaviour.

Further reading

Bunn, P.D. (2025). The AI Crisis in Higher Education: Or, on the importance of doing things badly. Everything was beautiful. https://everythingwasbeautiful.substack.com/p/the-ai-crisis-in-higher-education?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true

Gerlich, M. (2025). AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking. Societies, 15(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15010006

Lee H.P, Sarkar A, Tankelevitch L, Drosos I, Rintel S, Banks R, Wilson N. (2025). The impact of generative AI on critical thinking: Self-reported reductions in cognitive effort and confidence effects from a survey of knowledge workers. Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/lee_2025_ai_critical_thinking_survey.pdf

In this episode of TELSIG does SoTL, we are joined by Jane Pritchard to discuss the evolving landscape of scholarly teaching. Jane describes her transition from a material scientist to an educational developer at the University of Glasgow, emphasizing the importance of evidence-based educational enhancement. We go on to cover the historical development of SoTL since the early '90s, the role of interdisciplinary collaboration, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching practices, the intricacies of assessment and inclusivity in higher education, and the importance of challenging traditional practices and encouraging purposeful inquiry.

Jane Pritchard is the head of Educational Development at the University of Oxford's Centre for Teaching of Learning. She is widely published in the field of educational development and scholarship of teaching and learning, particularly in the field of institutional support for SoTL.