Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education· 2026Q1
How artificial intelligence transforms the feedback ecosystem in higher education
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
AI's role in higher education feedback is shifting from labor replacement to enhancing human relationships, as shown by a qualitative study of 30 participants (12 students, 18 educators).
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Key points
- Feedback in higher education is conceptualized as a dynamic, relational ecosystem, not merely a task for AI automation.
- A qualitative study analyzed feedback experiences of 12 students and 18 educators across three workshops.
- The presence of AI was observed to shift existing feedback relations between students and educators.
- The study proposes 'humans-as-the-loop' as a strategy for educators to reinforce feedback relationships in response to AI.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) is often presented as solving longstanding challenges of feedback in higher education. Research and commentary tend to focus on how AI can replace educator labour by providing feedback information at scale but this substitution risks simplifying a complex and interconnected set of practices. We draw from Barnett’s work on the ecological university to offer a dynamic, relational view of an ecosystem – where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This perspective of the feedback ecosystem sensitised a qualitative study, where data was constituted through participant discussion within two-hour online workshops. Twelve students and 18 educators participated across three workshops; analysis of participant feedback experiences illustrated how feedback relations shift in the presence of AI. To conclude, we suggest that in response to AI, educators can seek to strengthen their feedback relationships with students over time – what we call humans-as-the-loop – in the feedback ecosystem.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2026 · DOI ↗
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