The 'AI-First' University: Changing Curriculum Design & Assessment

What happens when a university commits to being "AI-first"? In this conversation, Associate Professor Sarah Midford (interim Pro Vice Chancellor of Learning and Teaching at La Trobe University) joins us to discuss how generative AI is shifting higher education from product-oriented grading to process-based assessment, the realities of teaching AI literacy, and what universities might look like in 2049.This conversation interrogates hard questions:Is the essay truly dead? Can we preserve the critical thinking of the essay by grading the process of learning rather than just the final product?How can educators redesign oral examinations when students can use LLMs to predict and practice responses to almost any question?Will outsourcing research tasks to AI diminish core human reasoning, and how should institutions monitor the impact of increased screen time on student isolation?How can academic workloads be restructured to focus on active, human-to-human collaboration instead of grading standardised outputs?Will traditional degrees become obsolete, giving way to highly transactional, mastery-based credentials alongside nostalgic, deep-thinking spaces?Guest Bio:Associate Professor Sarah Midford is the interim Pro Vice Chancellor of Learning and Teaching at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. With extensive experience in curriculum reform, digital learning design, and the scholarship of learning and teaching (SoLT), she has led large-scale projects recognised with national awards and a Senior Fellowship from Advance HE. Drawing on her academic background as a classicist, her work bridges ancient history, cultural reception studies, and modern educational equity.#AIinEducation #AILiteracy #AssessmentDesign #HigherEducation #EducationalReform #LaTrobeUniversity #FutureOfEducation #EdTech #AIethics #HigherEdAI