Abstract

This paper addresses the educational challenge of assessing learning in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), where knowledge is dynamically networked, and AI tools can generate expert-level outputs. It builds upon the question of what to teach by exploring how to assess student learning when education shifts from traditional, hierarchical models to decentralized, connectivist, and rhizomatic approaches. The study validates a hypothetical assessment matrix proposed by Cronjé, which maps Wagner's seven 21st-century survival skills onto the six principles of rhizomatic learning derived from Deleuze and Guattari. This matrix was applied to analyze in-depth student reflections from a first-year Information Systems course intentionally designed around connectivist and rhizomatic principles. The findings confirm that rhizomatic learning effectively fosters critical 21st-century skills and addresses key limitations of connectivism by promoting learner agency, knowledge transfer, and navigation of multiple truths. The analysis not only supports the matrix's hypothesized connections but also reveals four emergent skill-principle linkages. The paper concludes that Cronjé's framework holds significant potential for planning and assessing curricula that prepare students for responsible engagement in digitally saturated, AI-augmented futures, moving beyond content delivery to cultivate essential cognitive and behavioral competencies.

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