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Myths
- Publicly available tasks can be used without changing them.
- All students need to complete their assessment at the same time to ensure authenticity.
- Group work cannot be assessed.
- Authenticity checks aren't needed if an authenticity declaration is signed.
- To be authentic, work should be done in test conditions.
- AI-detection and plagiarism-checking tools are the most reliable way to ensure authenticity.
- Authentic external assessment is all NZQA's responsibility.
On this page
Facts
- Authenticity checks provide assurance that evidence produced is a student's own work.
- Publicly sourced assessment material must be changed. Changes can include:
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- specific figures or text
- data sets or sources
- contexts, topics or performance opportunities.
- Students can complete different assessment tasks to each other. They may complete assessments at different times providing authenticity is not compromised. Some students may require a separate task to ensure authentic work is submitted.
- Tasks can be broken into group and individual components to identify individual evidence.
- The school must report a Not Achieved grade if there is evidence that a student’s work is not their own.
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A student who has had a proven breach of authenticity should still be offered a further assessment opportunity if one is offered to the class.
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Schools must ensure that students are familiar with the rules for external assessment, including both submitted external standards and examined standards.
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Assessors should use strategies that promote authentic work:
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- monitoring progress through submission of plans and drafts, logs, version histories, feedback, conferencing, planned next steps and regular checkpoints.
- promoting student choice and agency through choice of contexts, personal interest and prior knowledge, presentation options, voice or video recordings, pre-assessment planning and proposals, referencing and bibliographies.
- limiting use of templates and exercising caution when offering guidance close to the due date.
- documenting explicit authentication instructions for each assessment task, including how Generative AI can and cannot be used for each standard assessed.
- allowing different authentication procedures for different tasks and different students.
- being familiar with or controlling resources available.
- using plagiarism software, AI detection tools or internet searches of suspicious phrases.
More points about authenticity
Inauthentic work may be a result of:
- a lack of understanding of the assessment task or what constitutes inauthentic work and plagiarism
- inappropriate use of AI, including translation tools
- copying from another person or public source, or plagiarism
- too much guidance from a teacher, assessor, parent or tutor
- willingly sharing work with other students.
If inauthentic work is suspected, the school may:
- investigate, using the principles of natural justice – evidence, fair explanation and reasonable timeframes
- ask for further evidence of authenticity, if in doubt
- not offer a resubmission
- consider offering a further assessment opportunity to all students.
Related pages
Guidance on the acceptable use of AI
Authenticity challenges and strategies
Pūtake (external link) - General assessment modules that encourage teachers to look at evidence closely, and support a nuanced understanding of authenticity