Applications of Generative AI in Summative Assessment

This chapter discusses how Generative AI (GenAI) can be used to enhance summative assessments. There is an ongoing debate around the continued effectiveness and integrity of conventional summative assessment methods such as written essays and end-of-unit exams. Critics argue that summative tests promote rote learning while summative essays are no longer reliable in the wake of widely accessible GenAI tools. Against this background, the chapter highlights the role that GenAI could play in enabling educators to design fair, unbiased, and scalable summative assessments that truly reflect student knowledge and skills. The premise is that by automating routine tasks such as question generation and grading, GenAI frees educators to focus on optimising educational outcomes and making assessments both effective and mindful. The chapter uses practical examples to demonstrate how tools like ChatGPT can help to create and grade personalised, diverse, and comprehensive summative assessments that align not only with educational outcomes today but also with the skills demand of the future.