Exploring How Generative AI Chatbots Support and Complicate ACCELERATE Principles in Programmatic Assessment

Abstract

ACCELERATE: Assessment Principles for Best Practice (2025) updates the foundational American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) principles with contemporary emphasis on equity, collaboration, and transparency. This pilot study documents the development of an AI chatbot providing programmatic assessment guidance grounded in ACCELERATE principles, examining which principles translate effectively to AI-mediated coaching versus those requiring direct human involvement. Using retrospective analysis of seven authentic challenges from Year 1 programmatic assessment evaluations at one institution, we examined AI-mediated coaching responses for evidence of effective principle translation and structural tensions that emerge when human-centered values encounter algorithmic operationalization. Preliminary findings suggest that six principles may translate effectively to AI support, while four (Collaborative/Co-Creative, Energized by Expertise, Responsiveness-Oriented, and Enduring/Evolving) carry structural tensions that appear to resist technological resolution. We propose a framework that positions AI as a tool for technical work, while humans remain guarantors of relational work in principled assessment practice.