Editorial: Artificial intelligence and educational assessment

Opportunities and threats

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) presents significant opportunities, yet critical challenges for educational assessment, with potential to reshape how learning is supported, determined, and enhanced. This special issue of Learning Letters explores these dynamics, offering timely insights into AI’s potential for personalised instruction, authentic assessment design, and innovative educational practices. Each featured article helps us explore these dynamics, focusing on redefining academic integrity through effect-tracking assessments, promoting synthesis-based assignments resistant to AI optimisation, leveraging machine learning for personalised STEM learning, and proposing practical, technology-agnostic assessment frameworks. The editorial advocates for ongoing empirical research, comprehensive professional development for educators, and robust policy frameworks as essential for realising AI's promises and avoiding its more harmful risks. Collectively, this special issue addresses the necessity of balancing AI's powerful capabilities with our ethical and pedagogical vigilance as educators and researchers.