Enhancing Knowledge Representations and Student Agency: A Study on Digital Assessment Designs in Higher Education

This study explores how digital assessment designs in higher education influence students’ ability to demonstrate their knowledge and realize their agency, which is a significant gap in the research literature. The increasing integration of digital tools, as well as heightened concerns about academic integrity, have led to a shift towards more controlled and monitored assessment methods. However, this shift raises concerns about potential restrictions on students’ academic freedom and their ability to influence how they present their knowledge. Assessment design plays a crucial role in determining the types of knowledge students are expected to demonstrate in various assessment tasks and how design elements influence students’ agency and their ability to engage and actively participate in producing knowledge. This study uses designs for learning and a textual analysis approach to examine the assessment designs of three professional programs at two Swedish universities. The analysis focuses on digital examination formats in order to identify the types of knowledge that are prioritized and to assess how these designs promote student agency. The results show that assessment designs can simultaneously enable and constrain students’ ability to act independently and creatively in their academic work. The findings highlight the importance of thoughtful assessment design in promoting student agency and knowledge engagement in digital educational environments. This research contributes a deeper understanding of how digital assessment designs can promote or hinder different types of knowledge and student agency in higher education.