Artificial Intelligence for Competency Assessment in Design Education: A Review of Literature

One of the biggest challenges for instructors involved in design education (DE) is fair and thorough assessment of student design competencies. Over the past few years, new technological innovations have emerged to support teaching and learning in DE, especially the complex process of assessment. One of these technological innovations is artificial intelligence (AI). AI is a promising research topic at the edge of technology, innovation, and education that is gaining great attention in contemporary design society. It is often defined as the effort to automate intellectual tasks normally performed by humans. AI-based assessment of competencies in DE has the potential to make the assessment more efficient and effective. Although AI itself is not recent, it is a relatively new and innovative way to assess students' design competencies. We conducted a review of the literature to identify and analyze research in the assessment of competencies in DE. In this paper, we (1) review the issues faced by students and instructors in the assessment of DE, (2) review AI-based assessment of competencies in engineering design, and (3) propose recommendations for AI-based assessment of competencies for design education.