Assessment design in higher education is traditionally a solitary responsibility, where instructors make complex decisions in isolation. However, this individualised focus frequently neglects the broader ecology of stakeholders - including students, industry partners, and professional staff - who are directly impacted by these choices and usually have little say in the process.

In our work, we adopted co-design to move away from this individualised instructor-centric model. We approached assessment design as a relational and situated practice, and involved students, lecturers, tutors, educational designers, academic developers and industry partners. A series of four co-design interventions created a structured space for dialogue and negotiation that shifted the focus from designing for students to designing with them. In particular, this revealed the "sayings, doings, and relatings" that shape how students and educators experience learning and assessment¹. This approach reframes assessment as a shared professional practice that is more inclusive and responsive to the lived experiences of everyone involved. 

Our practice in action: four interconnected interventions

To bring this co-design approach to life, we implemented four key interventions across three business courses at an Australian university, involving 102 stakeholders.

Connect:In workshops: These workshops served as structured spaces for multi-stakeholder dialogue. We brought together past and current students, educators, educational designers, and industry partners to speak candidly about assessment experiences and practices. Using design-thinking activities and LEGO Serious Play, we co-imagined future assessment alternatives and identified design gaps. These sessions were vital for building trust and allowed instructors to rethink their assumptions by hearing student reasoning directly.

“[Students] shared really interesting ideas. I was quite impressed by how students actually think about the learning activities and assessments for this particular course. I got quite inspiring ideas and I’m trying to implement them in my course this semester.” (Educators)

Weekly student reflections: Throughout a 13-week semester, we employed student-partners who documented their lived experiences of assessment each week. These reflections provided educators with weekly insights into the student journey, highlighting points such as feeling overloaded and moments where the assessment rationale needed further clarification. This intervention transformed students into active participants in the ongoing sense-making of assessment practice, while also allowing educators to make immediate, ‘just-in-time' adjustments to support the student experience.

“[The weekly reflection] has really helped me keep track of what’s going on in the course. It just gives a lot of clarity… It has helped me to realise why the course is structured this way and how things are connected.” (Student)

Academic capacity-building workshops: These workshops were designed to strengthen educators' design literacies and create a safe environment for professional reflection. Together with educational developers, we engaged with assessment theory and peer feedback, which helped us move away from ’inherited’ assessment formats towards more intentional, student-centred designs. These workshops fostered a culture of collegial trust and allowed us to articulate a clearer pedagogical rationale for our assessment choices.

“It’s really interesting to have those discussions with others in terms of how they see different assessment designs and to have a sounding board when discussing your own design. It’s helpful when they acknowledge something that might work in your course.” (Educators)

Student testimonial videos: This intervention involved former students creating videos that offer peer-to-peer advice on tackling assessments. These videos helped normalise common challenges and clarified expectations for new cohorts. For us as instructors, the videos offered evidence of how students construed the intent behind tasks, helping to bridge the gap between our design intention and the actual student experience.

“Peer advice is sometimes seen as more useful than guidance from educators. Lecturers may deliver the same message with a broader focus and emphasise tasks, while students share their advice through personal experiences.” (Educators)

Provocations

Our experiences lead us to offer three provocations for the future of assessment design in higher education, and we call for educators to consider:

1. Reposition assessment design as an ongoing educational practice. We should move beyond viewing design as a one-off procedural event and instead see it as an iterative, reflective practice that lives alongside our daily teaching work. In turn, assessment design becomes more than just the development of assessment tasks, and more broadly considers the interconnected assessment practices of students, educators and other key stakeholders throughout the semester.
2. Embed relationality and distributed responsibility. Assessment design should be de-centred, shifting from designing for students to designing with them. This requires creating ’choice architectures’ that legitimise multiple perspectives and gives students a genuine voice in the process.
3. Institutionalise assessment design as a supported, shared professional practice. For these changes to be sustainable, universities must provide supportive practice architectures. This includes allocated time for collaboration, policy frameworks and institutional structures that facilitate and reward partnerships, and a culture that treats assessment design as integral to educational quality.

We call on universities and education institutions to move beyond compliance-driven models and treat assessment design as a living, collaborative practice that reflects what we truly value in learning.

Keen to read more about the student and educator experiences from our strategic education project `Assessment design through co-design: Reimagining Business School Courses’?,Check out one of the three resources:

• Project report ‘Assessment design through co-design: Reimagining Business School courses’: https://doi.org/10.25910/6jej-5z84
• Research paper published in ‘Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education’: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2026.2643341.

Project website: https://bizonlineassessment.com/design)

Acknowledgement: We acknowledge students, industry partners and other stakeholders who contributed to the project. In particular, we extend our thanks to Andrew Brodzeli for providing support during the project. The co-design project was funded by the University of Sydney Strategic Education Grant.

References

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