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Authenticity, AI and internal assessment

Alice Wards

School Relationship Manager

alice.wards@nzqa.govt.nz

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Today’s webinar

  1. Welcome and Housekeeping
  2. NZQA requirements and expectations
  3. Good assessment practice
  4. Useful links
  5. Evaluation

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NZQA requirements and expectations

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The Rules

Authenticity or authentic is the assurance that the evidence submitted for assessment by a Candidate is their own, with the evidence being free of plagiarism, and any inclusion of work from another source acknowledged and appropriately referenced.

Plagiarism is where a Candidate has: (a) copied, paraphrased, sourced or otherwise used another person's work or ideas; or (b) used machine or device generated content (such as through the use of artificial intelligence); and (c) presented it as the Candidate’s own work without full acknowledgement.

NZQA Assessment Rules for Schools, TEOs assessing against Achievement Standards and NCEA Co-requisite Standards, and Candidates 2025

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Myth 3: Managing authenticity

“Assessors can monitor the authenticity of student work as it's developed and during marking through:

    • regular check points
    • asking students to submit plans and drafts
    • oral questioning to confirm understanding
    • asking for a repeat performance, if in doubt
    • referencing and bibliographies
    • monitoring revision changes
    • using plagiarism software or internet searches of suspicious phrases.”

Myth 3: Managing authenticity

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Official guidance

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Conditions of assessment

e.g. Ensuring Authenticity of Evidence 

Authenticity of student evidence needs to be assured regardless of the method of collecting evidence. This must be in line with the learning centre’s policy and NZQA’s Assessment Rules for Schools with Consent to Assess

Ensure that the student’s evidence is individually identifiable and represents the student’s own work. This includes evidence submitted as part of a group assessment and evidence produced outside of class time or assessor supervision. For example, an investigation carried out over several sessions could include assessor observations, meeting with the student at a set milestone, or student’s use of a journal or photographic entries to record progress. 

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Credible assessment practice

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Communicate clear expectations

What it looks like:

  1. A policy document, with specifics
  2. Responsibilities of PNs, HODs, teachers, students, whānau
  3. Annual declaration to raise awareness
  4. Specific guidance for each assessment
  5. Frequent review
  6. Linked to your school values & graduate profile
  7. Artefacts – posters, slogans, presentations, web page
  8. Include the junior school.

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Design assessments that promote student ownership and authenticity

What it looks like:

Teachers design tasks that require students to apply knowledge in personalised contexts, using their own experiences or ideas, making it difficult to rely solely on AI-generated content.

For example:

    • Reflect on personal observations
    • Refer to class learning activities
    • Include local contexts
    • Evaluations

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Don’t keep secrets – a school example:

At the start of each internal assessment, students complete a cover sheet. Teachers guide students through the relevant assessment conditions for that standard, making it clear:

  • If they can work alongside peers for any part of the assessment
  • If they can use internet-based sources for any part of the assessment
  • If they can use GenAI (including translation tools and Grammarly) for any part of the assessment
  • To what extent teachers / parents can guide / help students
  • When the checkpoints will be, and what they will look like
  • Where to find assessment docs on NZQA / MOE sites.

Students sign the same cover sheet when they hand it in.

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Use multiple checkpoints and draft submissions

What it looks like:

  1. Students submit versions of their work over time
  2. Planning notes and research steps
  3. Deadlines for milestone checks
  4. Check for consistency between plans, drafts and final product
  5. Shared documents
  6. Photographic evidence – e.g. for Visual Art
  7. Teachers check working documents and version histories

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Strategies to help students to avoid temptation:

  1. Use paper and pen only
  2. Remember your teacher is watching you
  3. Only work on the assessment when the teacher is present
  4. Only use the document that the teacher has shared with you
  5. Use the blue template
  6. Keep a journal of your progress – 3 minutes writing, every day.

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Use verbal questioning and conferencing

What it looks like:

  1. One-on-one
  2. Student-led or teacher-led
  3. Small groups
  4. Peer assessment
  5. Evidence-based.

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Build student assessment capability

What it looks like:

Students know what the standard requires, including

    • What is required for each grade level
    • What their options are – context / presentation / examples
    • What progress they should make, by when
    • What good looks like
    • What the assessment conditions are - what they are allowed to do, and what they are not allowed to do.

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Active invigilation in test situations

What it looks like:

  • Watching their screens
  • Walking around the room
  • Checking their devices

… and other old-school checks.

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Fair and transparent processes for addressing breaches

What it looks like:

    • Clear, documented processes
    • Restorative practices and natural justice
    • Consistent approach across the school.

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Ask your teachers

“How do you know that it’s their work?”

I don’t think our kids use it, really.

It’s getting harder to tell – I’m checking their work more often now.

I write my own assessment tasks.

I put the onus on them to provide evidence that it is their own work.

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Ask your students

“How do your teachers know your work is your own?”

They know us too well – they’d know if we used it.

Some of them are really good at using AI checkers.

I think you could get away with it quite easily in some classes.

They know my writing and what I can do.

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Evaluation form

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Assessor Support

NZQA learning management software – Pūtake https://lms.nzqa.govt.nz

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Assessor Support

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Assessor Practice Tool

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Kia ora�Thank you

www.nzqa.govt.nz