Assessment design through co-design: reimagining assessment design practices in higher education

Abstract

Assessment design in higher education is often approached with a focus on assessment tasks and the processes of designing them, with instructors making decisions in isolation. Drawing on assessment design, co-design and practice theory as a conceptual framing, we recast assessment design as a relational, situated practice and examine co-design as a way to come to practise assessment differently. In a business school, 102 stakeholders participated across three courses through four interconnected interventions: Connect:In workshops, weekly student reflections, academic capacity-building workshops and student testimonial videos. Using practitioner inquiry and the Theory of Practice Architectures, we analysed how sayings, doings and relatings shaped changes to assessment practices. Co-design produced more inclusive and relational assessment practices, strengthened instructor design literacies, surfaced students’ lived experiences and agency, and supported shared ownership of design choices. This led to changes to assessment practice within the courses. Challenges centred on time, role clarity and negotiating divergent views, yet structured facilitation and distributed responsibilities enabled progress. The article offers three provocations that serve as implications for practice: (1) reposition assessment design as an ongoing educational practice; (2) embed relationality and distributed responsibility into assessment design and (3) institutionalise assessment design as a supported and shared professional practice.