Innovation and integrity: Dr Nicola Charwat on learning and assessment in the AI age

16 February 2026

What happens to standards and trust when AI enters the classroom? Monash Business School’s Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching argues that universities need to rethink learning from the ground up.

Universities globally are grappling with how to respond to the rise of artificial intelligence.

The rapidly evolving technology has become a flashpoint, raising concerns about cheating, academic standards and trust.

In a sector facing such intense disruption, Monash Business School Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching, Dr Nicola Charwat, stresses that the most important decisions are cultural rather than technological.

“AI has forced us to confront fundamental questions about the role of higher education in light of what’s happening,” Dr Charwat said.

Assessment is where much of the anxiety sits.

“The accessibility of AI affects the role of educators, what we do in classrooms, and how we assess learning,” she said.

“Institutions need to engage with the ‘what, why and how’ of education at every level - from the institution as a whole, right down to what happens in individual classrooms.”

Central to her approach is the idea of a “deep culture of integrity”, which she describes as leaning into self-regulated learning.

“If students rely on AI to do the work for them, they’re not learning, and that’s counterproductive,” she said.

“Those three questions – the what, why and how – aren’t just for educators. Students need to be asking those questions too.”

For Dr Charwat, that means instilling autonomy, respect and a clear understanding of the value of learning itself.

Rethinking assessment from the ground up

Dr Charwat is the business school’s academic lead for the Programmatic Assessment and AI Review (PAAIR) project, which is designed to rethink how students are assessed, how learning is structured, and how AI is integrated responsibly.

“Programmatic assessment is the idea that students experience assessment as a coherent storyline across their degree,” she said.

“By applying a PAAIR lens across programs, we’re trying to help students see how everything connects – how different units and assessments contribute to their overall learning.”

Dr Charwat said AI technology had exposed the fragility of some traditional assessment forms, highlighting the need for more diverse and resilient approaches.

“Moving to in-class, performative, oral-based tasks and finding ways to assess students’ learning beyond relying on traditional written outputs is essential,” she said.

Complementing these changes, the AI component of PAAIR focuses on helping students and staff think critically about the technology and its broader effects on society.

“This means ensuring students and staff are genuinely literate in AI – not just how to use it, but understanding its biases, its social impacts, its environmental costs and its potential for misuse,” she said.

“That understanding is critical if we want students to use these tools intentionally and thoughtfully.”

Taken together, programmatic assessment and AI literacy create a cohesive, developmental student experience across entire degrees.

“We want students to see how every assessment contributes to developing one or more of those competencies, and to have multiple opportunities, at different levels and in different formats, to demonstrate them,” she said.

The next chapter for teaching and learning

Dr Charwat expects the next five years to test both pedagogy and culture.

“Our programmatic assessment project is huge,” she said.

“If, in five years, it’s genuinely embedded across the business school, and staff have taken it up with confidence, that would be an enormous success.”

She also envisions a more collaborative and professionalised approach to teaching.

“I’d like to see us break down the idea of academics working in isolation, and to see teaching become a much more collaborative endeavour,” she said.

More broadly, she hopes to see teaching recognised as a serious and respected career pathway.

“I would love to think that I have helped create opportunities for education-focused colleagues to step into leadership roles, and that teaching expertise is recognised and valued in the same way as other forms of academic leadership,” she said.

The hidden labour behind leadership

The same focus on systems and culture shapes Dr Charwat’s perspective on leadership – particularly for women in academia.

She draws clear parallels between the invisible labour women often undertake at home and the unseen work they carry within universities.

“One of the persistent challenges is the amount of invisible work women tend to take on in academia,” she said.

“Women often do a disproportionate amount of administrative and back-office work. That work is essential, but it is frequently undervalued and under-recognised.”

She urges young women in law, governance, and academia to be strategic about where and how they spend their labour.

“Be clear about your values and your goals, and make decisions that are consistent with them,” she said.

“Find great mentors and build a trusted ‘brain trust’ – people you can ask questions and get honest advice.”