Artificial Intelligence technology is making its way into higher education, in everything from course translation to campus socialising. But to maintain community trust, it’s essential the foundations of AI technology are set-up correctly.

James Mabbott of KPMG Futures shares his insights on possible applications of AI in the higher ed space, as well as customer responses to these technologies.

Artificial Intelligence technology is making its way into higher education, in everything from course translation to campus socialising. But to maintain community trust, it’s essential the foundations of AI technology are set-up correctly.
James Mabbott of KPMG Futures shares his insights on possible applications of AI in the higher ed space, as well as customer responses to these technologies.

The Thought Bubble is OES’ flagship podcast for higher education, bringing together university leaders, policy experts and industry practitioners to explore the ideas shaping the future of learning.

Each season focuses on a critical shift in the sector, combining expert perspectives with practical insight into how institutions can respond, adapt and lead.

From artificial intelligence and student experience to learning design and quality assurance, The Thought Bubble goes beyond trends to examine how higher education is evolving in practice.

Tune into our higher ed podcast for insights on strategic shifts in Australian higher education, shaping the future of academia.

The Thought Bubble is OES&rsquo; flagship podcast for higher education, bringing together university leaders, policy&nbsp;experts&nbsp;and industry practitioners to explore the ideas shaping the future of learning.
Each season focuses on a critical shift in the sector, combining expert perspectives with practical insight into how institutions can respond,&nbsp;adapt&nbsp;and lead.
From artificial intelligence and student experience to learning design and quality assurance, The Thought Bubble goes beyond trends to examine how higher education is evolving in practice.
Tune into our higher ed podcast for insights on strategic shifts in Australian higher education, shaping the future of academia.

Through expert interviews and industry perspectives, season one of OES' The Thought Bubble podcast it explores how universities are responding to technological acceleration, changing workforce expectations and new models of delivery.

The Thought Bubble by OES

As Higher Education is catapulted into the digital era, many in the sector are scrambling to catch–up with the needs of our rapidly changing world. This podcast from OES shares insightful interviews with experts from around the world, examining emerging technologies and the ways in which they’re transforming how we teach, learn, evaluate, and experience Higher Education. Hosted by OES Executive Director, Claire Sadler.

Find out more about what we do: https://oes.edu.au/

As Higher Education is catapulted into the digital era, many in the sector are scrambling to catch–up with the needs of our rapidly changing world. This podcast from OES shares insightful interviews with experts from around the world, examining emerging technologies and the ways in which they’re transforming how we teach, learn, evaluate, and experience Higher Education. Hosted by OES Executive Director, Claire Sadler.
Find out more about what we do: <a href="https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Foes.edu.au%2F&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cjhansen%40oes.edu.au%7C3b5735c2a8894838f2c208da84bacd37%7C57d289898c4541189cde8a03712e508d%7C0%7C0%7C637968235112317827%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=gTmeEN6oxcIVWyhedqRXtg%2FwbQM%2FtVZB7gtG51bMSvc%3D&amp;reserved=0">https://oes.edu.au/</a>

The Thought Bubble

From AI to B: Forecasting the integration of AI into education

How curriculum and assessment design generate credible evidence of learning.

This six-episode season of The Thought Bubble explores how higher education can credibly assure learning in an AI-enabled world. Drawing on OES’s Connected Assurance Framework, the series brings together academic leaders, learning designers and policy experts to examine how learning is designed, supported and evidenced over time. Focused on quality, equity and trust, it offers a practical, sector-facing conversation on building defensible evidence of student capability.

Episode 3 explores how curriculum and assessment design function as the foundation of assurance.

Hosted by Amanda Ford (Associate Director of Gen AI, OES), this episode features OES' Dr Lucy Elliott, Jesse Keenan and David Robertson, who bring practical experience in learning design and program architecture.

The conversation focuses on how well-designed programs generate defensible evidence of learning through scaffolded, cumulative assessment, rather than relying on single high-stakes tasks.

It also explores the trade-offs institutions are navigating, including balancing authenticity with workload, maintaining perceptions of rigour, and reducing reliance on detection-led approaches.

A central idea is that pedagogical coherence enables stronger, more credible assurance, and underpins both relational and technological dimensions of the Connected Assurance Framework.

This episode discusses the Connected Assurance Framework, which underpins the entire season. This framework is discussed in OES's positioning paper on Assurance of Learning which can be found here: https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/

Published by OES (Online Education Services) – www.oes.edu.au
Recorded in Melbourne, Australia.

How curriculum and assessment design generate credible evidence of learning.
This six-episode season of The Thought Bubble explores how higher education can credibly assure learning in an AI-enabled world. Drawing on OES&rsquo;s Connected Assurance Framework, the series brings together academic leaders, learning designers and policy experts to examine how learning is designed, supported and evidenced over time. Focused on quality, equity and trust, it offers a practical, sector-facing conversation on building defensible evidence of student capability.
<hr>
Episode 3 explores how curriculum and assessment design function as the foundation of assurance.
Hosted by Amanda Ford (Associate Director of Gen AI, OES), this episode features OES' Dr Lucy Elliott, Jesse Keenan and David Robertson, who bring practical experience in learning design and program architecture.
The conversation focuses on how well-designed programs generate defensible evidence of learning through scaffolded, cumulative assessment, rather than relying on single high-stakes tasks.
It also explores the trade-offs institutions are navigating, including balancing authenticity with workload, maintaining perceptions of rigour, and reducing reliance on detection-led approaches.
A central idea is that pedagogical coherence enables stronger, more credible assurance, and underpins both relational and technological dimensions of the Connected Assurance Framework.
This episode discusses the <a href="https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/">Connected Assurance Framework</a>, which underpins the entire season. This framework is discussed in OES's positioning paper on Assurance of Learning which can be found here: <a href="https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/">https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/</a>
<hr>
Published by OES (Online Education Services) &ndash; <a href="http://www.oes.edu.au">www.oes.edu.au</a> Recorded in Melbourne, Australia.

OES learning design and program experts talk through how curriculum and assessment design generate credible evidence of learning.

Episode 3: Design as integrity infrastructure – Pedagogical assurance in practice

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/bd83cac2-c86b-4c95-b314-aefb00235aaa/clips/e22f1474-7274-4dd7-98ed-b42e006f8cbe/transcript

Challenging the “online vs on campus” debate and exploring how program design drives assurance.

This six-episode season of The Thought Bubble explores how higher education can credibly assure learning in an AI-enabled world. Drawing on OES’s Connected Assurance Framework, the series brings together academic leaders, learning designers and policy experts to examine how learning is designed, supported and evidenced over time. Focused on quality, equity and trust, it offers a practical, sector-facing conversation on building defensible evidence of student capability.

Episode 2 challenges one of the most persistent assumptions in higher education: that risk is tied to delivery mode.

Hosted by Amanda Ford (OES, Associate Director of GenAI), this episode features two of OES's senior leaders, Dr Aaron Wijeratne and Dr Karen Harvey, who bring perspectives from program design and student experience as well as their respective PhD research.

Together, they explore how online, hybrid and on-campus programs often share similar assessment structures, yet are judged differently based on modality labels. Quality is not tied to physical location, but to how learning is intentionally designed as a structured environment, with clear weekly touchpoints, scaffolded progression and visible evidence of learning over time.

The conversation shifts the focus from “is online safe?” to a more useful question: is this program designed and governed in a way that generates credible, connected evidence of learning?

Drawing on the OES Connected Assurance Framework, the episode highlights the role of program architecture, coherence and progression in shaping assurance, and examines how modality-based assumptions can lead to blunt or inequitable responses.

The episode also highlights how this plays out for career changers and time-poor learners, where flexibility must coexist with strong, ongoing evidence of capability.

This episode discusses the Connected Assurance Framework, which underpins the entire season. This framework is discussed in OES's positioning paper on Assurance of Learning which can be found here: https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/

Published by OES (Online Education Services) – www.oes.edu.au
Recorded in Melbourne, Australia.

Challenging the &ldquo;online vs on campus&rdquo; debate and exploring how program design drives assurance.
This six-episode season of The Thought Bubble explores how higher education can credibly assure learning in an AI-enabled world. Drawing on OES&rsquo;s Connected Assurance Framework, the series brings together academic leaders, learning designers and policy experts to examine how learning is designed, supported and evidenced over time. Focused on quality, equity and trust, it offers a practical, sector-facing conversation on building defensible evidence of student capability.
<hr>
Episode 2 challenges one of the most persistent assumptions in higher education: that risk is tied to delivery mode.
Hosted by Amanda Ford (OES, Associate Director of GenAI), this episode features two of OES's senior leaders,&nbsp;Dr Aaron Wijeratne&nbsp;and Dr Karen Harvey, who bring perspectives from program design and student experience as well as their respective PhD research.
Together, they explore how online, hybrid and on-campus programs often share similar assessment structures, yet are judged differently based on modality labels. Quality is not tied to physical location, but to how learning is intentionally designed as a structured environment, with clear weekly touchpoints, scaffolded progression and visible evidence of learning over time.
The conversation shifts the focus from &ldquo;is online safe?&rdquo; to a more useful question: is this program designed and governed in a way that generates credible, connected evidence of learning?
Drawing on the OES Connected Assurance Framework, the episode highlights the role of program architecture, coherence and progression in shaping assurance, and examines how modality-based assumptions can lead to blunt or inequitable responses.
The episode also highlights how this plays out for career changers and time-poor learners, where flexibility must coexist with strong, ongoing evidence of capability.
This episode discusses the <a href="https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/">Connected Assurance Framework</a>, which underpins the entire season. This framework is discussed in OES's positioning paper on Assurance of Learning which can be found here: <a href="https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/">https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/</a>
<hr>
Published by OES (Online Education Services) &ndash; <a href="http://www.oes.edu.au">www.oes.edu.au</a> Recorded in Melbourne, Australia.

Challenging “online vs on campus” debate about university study modes, and exploring how program design drives assurance of learning regardless of how and where a student is participating in higher education.

Episode 2: Beyond modality debates – Where does assurance really live?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/bd83cac2-c86b-4c95-b314-aefb00235aaa/clips/7bdea227-9bfd-401d-a56b-b42e006cacaa/transcript

Reframing assurance of learning in the age of AI, moving from detection to program-level evidence.

This six-episode season of The Thought Bubble explores how higher education can credibly assure learning in an AI-enabled world. Drawing on OES’s Connected Assurance Framework, the series brings together academic leaders, learning designers and policy experts to examine how learning is designed, supported and evidenced over time. Focused on quality, equity and trust, it offers a practical, sector-facing conversation on building defensible evidence of student capability.

Episode 1 of OES's series about Assurance of Learning opens the season by reframing how we think about the process of teaching, and assessing what has been learned, in the age of AI.

While much of the sector conversation has focused on detection and academic integrity, this episode argues that these responses are symptoms of a deeper issue: the challenge of generating coherent, program-level evidence of learning over time.

Hosted by Amanda Ford (Associate Director of GenAI at OES), this episode features a conversation between Chief Academic and Partnership Officer, Dr Erin Jancauskas and Senior Academic Adviser, Sue Kokonis, who explore how AI is both exposing and accelerating long-standing tensions in assessment, evidence and academic judgement.

You’ll also hear perspectives from Rebecca Hall, OES's Director of Government Relations and higher education policy expert, Chris Gartner, bringing policy, regulatory and sector-level context to the discussion.

A key idea explored in this episode is the distinction between artefact security and evidentiary validity, and what it means to build confidence in learning through multiple signals across time, rather than relying on single assessment events.

This episode introduces the Connected Assurance Framework, which underpins the rest of the season. This framework is discussed in OES's positioning paper on Assurance of Learning which can be found here: https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/

Published by OES (Online Education Services) – www.oes.edu.au
Recorded in Melbourne, Australia.

Reframing assurance of learning in the age of AI, moving from detection to program-level evidence.
This six-episode season of The Thought Bubble explores how higher education can credibly assure learning in an AI-enabled world. Drawing on OES&rsquo;s Connected Assurance Framework, the series brings together academic leaders, learning designers and policy experts to examine how learning is designed, supported and evidenced over time. Focused on quality, equity and trust, it offers a practical, sector-facing conversation on building defensible evidence of student capability.
<hr>
Episode 1 of OES's series about Assurance of Learning opens the season by reframing how we think about the process of teaching, and assessing what has been learned, in the age of AI.
While much of the sector conversation has focused on detection and academic integrity, this episode argues that these responses are symptoms of a deeper issue: the challenge of generating coherent, program-level evidence of learning over time.
Hosted by Amanda Ford (Associate Director of GenAI at OES), this episode features a conversation between Chief Academic and Partnership Officer, Dr Erin Jancauskas and Senior Academic Adviser, Sue Kokonis, who explore how AI is both exposing and accelerating long-standing tensions in assessment, evidence and academic judgement.
You&rsquo;ll also hear perspectives from Rebecca Hall, OES's Director of Government Relations and higher education policy expert, Chris Gartner, bringing policy, regulatory and sector-level context to the discussion.
A key idea explored in this episode is the distinction between artefact security and evidentiary validity, and what it means to build confidence in learning through multiple signals across time, rather than relying on single assessment events.
This episode introduces the <a href="https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/">Connected Assurance Framework</a>, which underpins the rest of the season. This framework is discussed in OES's positioning paper on Assurance of Learning which can be found here: <a href="https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/">https://oes.edu.au/assuranceoflearning/</a>
<hr>
Published by OES (Online Education Services) &ndash; <a href="http://www.oes.edu.au">www.oes.edu.au</a> Recorded in Melbourne, Australia.

OES academic and policy experts discuss why the Australian higher education sector must reframe assurance of learning in the age of AI, moving from detection to program-level evidence.

Assurance of learning in an AI world – what problem are we actually solving?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/bd83cac2-c86b-4c95-b314-aefb00235aaa/clips/b8a3a79f-4c69-44a3-95ad-b42e00682f2d/transcript

From AI to B: Forecasting the integration of AI into education

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