Myth 3: Managing authenticity

Myths and facts about authenticity and internal assessment

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.

Facts

  • Authenticity checks provide assurance that evidence produced is a student's own work.
  • Publicly sourced assessment material must be changed. Changes can include:
    • 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.
  • 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.

  • Schools must ensure that students are familiar with the rules for external assessment, including both submitted external standards and examined standards.

  • Assessors should use strategies that promote authentic work:

    • 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 information 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.

Read more NCEA myths and facts

Related pages

NZQA Assessment Rules

NCEA rules and procedures

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

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