PAAIR Project Background (2024)

To ensure the calibration of our courses for contemporary contexts and as part of addressing the plan set out in the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) 2024 Request for Information (RFI) on AI in education, Monash started a thorough review and programmatic adjustment of all Monash coursework courses.

This work is known as the The Programmatic Assessment and AI Review (PAAIR) project. It requires a collaboration between faculties and Monash Learning and Teaching to advance assessment to strategically integrate AI and secure assessments as needed, within a coordinated set of diverse programmatic assessment activities that are carefully scaffolded through courses to prepare students and disciplines to operate in the Age of AI.

The aim is to support the integrity of assessment and student achievement while also facilitating a more holistic and developmental understanding of students' learning journeys.

Work completed in 2024

PAAIR Project preparation commenced in May 2024, with the PAAIR Project Team collaborating with A/DDEs to gather information on the current state of courses across the University. Preliminary reviews were conducted to aid faculties in creating timelines for PAAIR reviews and engagement.

This review included an AI readiness assessment completed by faculty course leaders, a list of questions created to better understand the current state of assessment and the integration of genAI into assessment practices.

In the preliminary review, A/DDEs prioritised the review of courses and created a timeline to implement the review across 18 months starting Semester 1 2025. These reviews were submitted as faculty plans for PAAIR.

A few courses were selected to pilot the process and resources during Semester 2, 2024 to inform future university-wide engagement with future PAAIR reviews.

Timeline of work completed throughout 2024.

PAAIR pilot

A Semester 2, 2024 pilot phase with three faculties (MADA, MNHS and BusEco) trialled different approaches and processes to achieve the PAAIR outcomes and goals. The 2024 pilot was for faculty participants to explore, design and reflect back to the wider university, ideas, structures and modalities for how we can achieve the goals of PAAIR.

During the pilot:

  • education leaders, educational designers, course directors and CEs worked together to define the current state of assessment and learning outcomes
  • they refined and advanced their assessment to meet the 2024 PAAIR goals, through capacity building via workshops, modules and collaboration within teaching teams.
  • course leaders provided a visual course mapping of core units, revised course learning outcomes, revised unit learning outcomes and assessment regimes
  • each course submitted an executive summary to accompany the proposed changes to provide context and narration to the PAAIR work
  • these documents were reviewed by a cross section of PAAIR leaders to provide feedback and ensure the PAAIR project goals were achieved.

Concurrently in June 2024, the University shared with TEQSA Monash's two year PAAIR plan demonstrating the required “evidence of development and progression of an institutional generative AI response strategy”. The TEQSA assessment advancement includes principles aligned with our direction but we acknowledge that this is primarily a timeline-driving piece.

Over the pilot, faculties:

  • provided insight on current Faculty processes for course/unit changes and feedback on suggested processes, documentation and resources to enable success
  • highlighted both similarities and differences in the needs of each faculty, based on their current practices and approaches to assessment
  • tested different templates and tools to support the collaborative process, approaching the work with an interactive mindset
  • shared their learnings and offered support to further improve the processes for scaling across the university.