EDA AssessmentFrameworkThe Empowering-Developing-Assuring Assessment Framework focuses on the purposes of assessment in a time of genAI

The EDA Assessment Framework

Deakin’s new assessment framework, the Empowering-Developing-Assuring Assessment Framework seeks to broaden assessment design decisions from focusing on the use or banning of genAI, by instead focusing primarily on the purposes of assessment in a time of genAI.

Creating the framework

The Empowering-Developing-Assuring Assessment Framework was created throughout 2025 as part of the Redefining Assessment Project that supported university-wide provocative and exploratory discussions with staff and students to co-develop an innovative model that challenged existing paradigms and opened up new possibilities for assessment in response to the impact of genAI on assessment, higher education, the future of work and the world.

Activities to support the university-wide discussion included monthly Think Tanks where teaching and learning leaders from across Deakin engaged with guest speakers from across the sector, and our internationally renowned CRADLE researchers and colleagues, to challenge existing paradigms and explore new possibilities  for assessment.

In addition, the project team drew on current and emerging literature and trends across the sector to inform the new Assessment Framework; this included Bridgeman and Liu’s (2025) ‘Two-lane approach’, the Assessment ‘as’, ‘for’ and ‘of’ Learning model (Schellekens et al. 2021)  and Boud’s (2000) notion of Sustainable Assessment.

A Students as Partners approach was also utilised, with students employed as part of the project team to act as liaisons with the broader student body and co-designers of the framework.

The conceptual framework, illustrated below shows the relationship between three core purposes of assessment: Developing knowledge, skills and attributes, Assuring course learning outcomes, and Empowering students during the assessment process.

The Empowering-Developing-Assuring Assessment Framework

The result is Deakin’s distinct assessment framework that prioritises the varied purposes of assessment across a degree. There are two assessment task types in the framework, Assuring tasks and Developing tasks, that are distinguished by their primary purpose.

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The Empowering-Developing-Assuring Assessment Framework aims to:

Foster the design of a holistic, course-wide ecosystem of interlinked assessment task types and feedback loops

Strengthen student engagement and meaningful learning.

Develop critical capabilities needed to thrive in a genAI enabled world

Assure achievement of Course Learning Outcomes to protect the integrity of the award

A Distinctively Deakin Assessment Framework

At Deakin, we share the value that students are a university’s  ‘true north’ (Deakin University, 2019). In demonstrating this value, the inclusion of an explicit assessment design element that puts the student at the centre (Empowering), alongside a course-wide ecosystem underpinned by assessment purpose (Assuring and Developing), reflects an approach that embraces innovation and the integration of emerging technologies that enables students to thrive – making this model distinctively Deakin.

Implementing the Empowering-Developing-Assuring Assessment Framework

To support the enactment of the Empowering-Developing-Assuring Assessment Framework, six guidelines have been developed.

EDA Framework

Guidelines

Guideline 1

Assessment is designed as a coordinated ecosystem across a course that balances the different purposes of assessment to support assurance of Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) either through a programmatic or course-wide approach. Assuring tasks are strategically distributed across the course at appropriate checkpoints ensuring a suitable proportion of assurance activities.

Guideline 2

The volume of Assuring tasks is no  more than that required to assure student achievement of CLOs.  The overall volume of assessment and diversity of assessment genres should encourage depth of learning, meaningful engagement with course content, teachers and peers, and space for a  focus on the process of learning.

Guideline 3

Expected standards are aligned to  CLOs and these form the foundation  of assessment design and progression decisions.

Guideline 4

Assessment design is inclusive, enabling access and participation for all students.

Guideline 5

Assessment design is grounded in  trust and relationships to support an educative and informed culture of genAI use. In Developing tasks, the focus is shifted from detection to encouraging safe, responsible and transparent use  of genAI.

Guideline 6

Assessment ecosystems foster the development of feedback literacy through student engagement with multiple sources of feedback and mechanisms that promote dialogic feedback, action and the development  of evaluative judgement.

Planning is currently underway to implement the new Empowering-Developing-Assuring Assessment Framework across Deakin’s courses.

LEARN MORE

If you would like to learn more about the Empowering-Developing-Assuring Assessment Framework, please contact Associate Professor Darci Taylor, Director, Learning Design, d.taylor@deakin.edu.au.

References

Boud, D. (2000). Sustainable Assessment: rethinking assessment for the learning society. Studies in Continuing Education, 22(2), 151-167.

Bridgeman, A., & Liu, D. (2025). The Sydney Assessment Framework. The University of Sydney.
https://educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au/teaching@sydney/the-sydney-assessment-framework/

Deakin University. (1 July 2019). Deakin welcomes new Vice-Chancellor.
https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/news-and-media-releases/articles/deakin-welcomes-new-vice-chancellor

Schellekens, L. H., Bok, H. G. J., de Jong, L. H., van der Schaaf, M. F., Kremer, W. D. J., & van der Vleuten, C. P. M. (2021). A scoping review on the notions of Assessment as Learning (AaL), Assessment for Learning (AfL), and Assessment of Learning (AoL). Studies in Educational Evaluation, 71,  101094.

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