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Author Bio

Dr. Eliana El Khoury is a recognized leader in the field of alternative assessment, holding a PhD from the University of Calgary. She serves as an associate professor at Athabasca University, where she works closely with experts across different disciplines to improve how students are evaluated. Her primary focus is on ensuring quality and fairness in educational assessments, and she actively incorporates new ideas and technologies to achieve this goal. Dr. El Khoury is the founder and chair of the Symposium on Alternative Assessment, a key event that brings together specialists to discuss and develop more effective assessment methods. Her efforts in the symposium and beyond aim to make assessment tools that better reflect student learning and support educational success. Dr. El Khoury's work is dedicated to enhancing educational practices through more thoughtful and supportive assessment strategies.

Keywords

Assessment, ontology, being, creative arts pedagogy, student agency

Abstract

Assessment design shapes not only what students learn, but who they become as learners. In the era of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), where information is abundant and recall is easily outsourced, higher education assessment must move beyond memorization and toward authentic tasks that cultivate deeper learning and ontological growth. This conceptual, reflective paper argues that assessment should be grounded in students’ mode of being, rather than restricted to knowing, having, or doing. Drawing on Barnett’s ontology of higher education, Biesta’s subjectification, and Su’s epistemological distinctions, this paper positions assessment as a formative site where agency, ownership, identity, and self-understanding can be intentionally developed. This paper draws on a narrative literature review that synthesises research on assessment in the creative and performing arts, selected purposively for its attention to creativity and learner empowerment. The synthesis identifies four quality indicators through which assessment engages students’ being: (1) shifting from reproduction to creation via open tasks and multimodal outputs; (2) situating assessment in naturalistic, public-facing contexts that connect learning to authentic audiences and communities; (3) adopting holistic approaches that value process, reflexivity, and becoming self-assessors; and (4) foregrounding communication through dialogue, critique, consultation, and the cultivation of an ontological student voice. The paper concludes that “assessment for becoming” is essential for meaningful engagement and integrity in AI-shaped learning environments.

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