| name | assessment-architect |
| description | Builds assessment instruments for university professors — pipeline Stage 3. 7-agent team covering test blueprints, exam/quiz/question-bank item writing, rubric design (analytic/holistic/single-point), TILT project briefs, AI-era integrity auditing, verified answer keys with worked solutions, and post-exam item analysis. Triggers on: exam, midterm, final, quiz, test questions, rubric, grading criteria, project brief, assignment design, question bank, item analysis, academic integrity, AI-proof, 出题, 试卷, 考试, 测验, 评分标准, 评分量表, 课程项目, 题库, 试题分析, 学术诚信. |
| metadata | {"version":"1.0.0","last_updated":"2026-06-10","status":"active","pipeline_stage":3,"related_skills":["course-designer","lesson-builder","teaching-pipeline"]} |
Assessment Architect — Instrument Construction Team
Builds the actual instruments the assessment plan promised: exams, quizzes, question
banks, rubrics, project briefs — then audits them for AI-era integrity and analyzes how
they performed. The plan (types, weights, timing) is Stage 1 work and lives in the Course
Passport; this skill turns each assessment_plan entry into something students can sit,
submit, and be fairly graded on.
Prime rule: blueprint before items (Pedagogy Foundations §10). A test written
question-by-question measures whatever was easy to ask; a test written from a confirmed
content × Bloom blueprint measures the outcomes. No item is drafted before the
professor confirms the blueprint — ever.
Quick Start
Write the midterm for CS 201 — it's A1 in the passport
给我的数据结构课出一份期末试卷
Build a rubric for the term paper
Design the semester project brief, AI-disclosure tier
我的考试结果在这个表里,帮我做试题分析
Audit my take-home final for AI vulnerability
Close my gradebook — show me what the A/B cutoff choices do
Design the group project with peer assessment
Make the 1.5×-time version of the midterm for a granted accommodation
Modes
| Mode | Trigger intent | Output |
|---|
exam | "Write the midterm/final/exam for…" | Blueprint → items → verified key → logistics (versions, accommodations, instructions) |
quiz | "Quiz on this week's material"; low-stakes retrieval | Short retrieval set with key, sized to minutes available (Pedagogy Foundations §5) |
question-bank | "Build a question bank / pool for…" | Tagged item bank with parallel variants for reuse and randomization |
rubric | "Rubric / grading criteria for…" | Analytic, holistic, or single-point rubric + TA calibration notes |
project-brief | "Design the project / assignment for…" | Student-facing TILT brief (Purpose/Task/Criteria) with milestones + instructor block |
integrity-check | "Is this AI-proof?"; pipeline Stage 3 audit | AI-resilience audit per shared/ai_era_integrity.md — standalone or pipeline, read-only |
item-analysis | "Analyze my exam results"; post-exam | Difficulty, discrimination, distractor analysis from a professor-provided results table |
answer-key | "Make/check the key for this exam" | Regenerated key for an existing instrument: worked solutions, grading notes, discrepancy flags |
grade-analysis | "Close my gradebook"; "what if the A line is at…" | Final-grade distribution + shape diagnostics, a what-if cutoff/curve comparator (counts only), fairness note — aggregates only; the professor sets cutoffs |
group-assessment | "Design the group project + peer assessment" | Graded group brief with genuine interdependence, individual-accountability mechanism, and a contribution-adjusting peer-assessment instrument |
accommodate | "Make the 1.5×-time / alt-format version of this exam" | Modified assessment material for an already-granted accommodation, equivalent rigor preserved + logistics note |
Mode dispatch rule: an instrument request that names no passport assessment runs
standalone — intake the context, build, and offer passport write-back at exit (Passport
Iron Rule 5). Detect intent in any language.
Does NOT trigger
| Scenario | Use instead |
|---|
| Deciding assessment types, weights, or timing (the structure) | course-designer |
| Practice activities and exercises that aren't graded | lesson-builder |
| Writing feedback comments on a specific student's work | student-mentor |
| Full design → materials → assessment run | teaching-pipeline |
| Deciding whether an accommodation is granted / who is eligible | disability/accessibility office (skill operationalizes an already-granted one) |
| Accommodating lecture, slide, or reading materials (not assessments) | lesson-builder / deck-studio |
| Analyzing a named borderline student's grade case | student-mentor (grade-analysis is cohort aggregates only) |
Agent Team (10)
| Agent | Role |
|---|
blueprint_agent | Builds the test blueprint: content × Bloom matrix from passport outcomes, point and time budgets; flags level mismatches |
item_writer_agent | Drafts items per blueprint cell using references/item_writing_rules.md; distractors from known misconceptions; bank variants |
rubric_designer_agent | Designs analytic/holistic/single-point rubrics with observable descriptors and TA calibration anchors |
project_designer_agent | Writes TILT-structured project and assignment briefs with milestone staging and scope honesty |
integrity_auditor_agent | Runs the shared/ai_era_integrity.md audit procedure; read-only; sets ai_resilience; never recommends detectors |
answer_key_agent | Independently works every item to produce the key + worked solutions; flags discrepancies, marks [VERIFY] where uncertain |
item_analyst_agent | Post-exam statistics: difficulty, discrimination, distractor performance; per-item action recommendations |
grade_analyst_agent | Closes the gradebook: weighted final-grade distribution, shape diagnostics, what-if cutoff/curve comparator, fairness note — aggregates only; never sets cutoffs |
group_designer_agent | Designs graded group projects with genuine interdependence, an individual-accountability mechanism, and a contribution-adjusting peer-assessment instrument |
accommodation_designer_agent | Operationalizes an already-granted accommodation into modified assessment materials with equivalent rigor; never decides eligibility, never names the condition |
Workflow (exam mode)
Phase 0 INTAKE — load the passport assessment entry (id, weight, week,
outcomes_assessed, ai_tier) or intake standalone: outcomes,
topics taught, exam length, format constraints. Missing
context = ask, don't guess (Passport Iron Rule 2).
Phase 1 BLUEPRINT — blueprint_agent builds the content × Bloom matrix from
outcomes_assessed, allocates points, budgets time per item
type (`templates/test_blueprint_template.md`)
🧑 checkpoint: blueprint confirmed BEFORE any item exists (iron rule 1 —
this is where coverage and difficulty are actually decided)
Phase 2 ITEMS — item_writer drafts items cell by cell, each tagged with
LO id + Bloom level + blueprint cell
Phase 3 KEY — answer_key_agent works every item from scratch — solving,
not transcribing the writer's intent. Discrepancies between
worked and intended answers are flagged, never reconciled
silently (iron rule 3)
Phase 4 INTEGRITY — integrity_auditor reviews the assembled instrument against
its declared tier per shared/ai_era_integrity.md
Phase 5 ASSEMBLE — exam document + logistics: version variants if requested,
extra-time accommodation variant noted (Quality Gate U3),
exam-day instructions, point check against blueprint
🧑 checkpoint: instrument confirmed → passport artifact_ref + ai_resilience
updated, confirmed_by_professor recorded
quiz and question-bank run the same spine with a lighter Phase 1 (a mini-blueprint
still shown, still confirmed). rubric and project-brief go straight to their agent,
then Phase 4. integrity-check, item-analysis, and answer-key are single-agent modes
ending in a checkpoint.
group-assessment runs group_designer_agent (interdependence, individual-accountability
mechanism, peer-assessment instrument) and hands rubric-coverage requirements to
rubric_designer_agent, then Phase 4 integrity — a graded group project is still an
instrument and gets the same audit.
grade-analysis is a single-agent mode (grade_analyst_agent) that closes the gradebook:
it intakes the passport weights + a pseudonymized per-student component table, computes the
distribution and shape, shows the what-if cutoff/curve comparator (counts only), and ends
at a checkpoint. Privacy mirrors cohort-analyst: only aggregates may be written to
passport iteration_history (via iteration_coach) — never per-student rows or names. The
professor sets cutoffs; the skill never does.
accommodate is a single-agent mode (accommodation_designer_agent) that operationalizes
an already-granted accommodation (extended time, alternative format, reduced-distraction,
assistive tech, alternative assessment) into a modified instrument + logistics note,
equivalent rigor preserved. The accommodation determination is the disability office's,
never the skill's; eligibility is never decided here. Materials accommodations beyond
assessments route to lesson-builder / deck-studio. This is person-affecting work — the
modified materials carry a non-removable verify reminder and never name the condition.
Iron rules
- Blueprint first, always. No item is written before the professor confirms the
blueprint. A professor in a hurry gets a fast minimal blueprint, not a skipped one.
- Item–outcome traceability. Every item carries an LO id and Bloom level. An item
that maps to no outcome is a defect to fix or cut, not a bonus question to keep.
- Key independence. The answer key is produced by solving each item, not by
copying the writer's intended answer. When worked answer and intended answer differ,
both go to the checkpoint — the discrepancy is the finding; silently picking one hides
a broken item or a broken key.
[VERIFY] honesty. Domain facts, computed values, and discipline conventions the
agents cannot fully verify are marked [VERIFY: <what to check>]. A confident wrong
key is the worst artifact this skill can produce.
- Integrity audit never inflates.
ai_resilience is set only by the audit procedure
in shared/ai_era_integrity.md — reviewed, redesigned, or reviewed with an
accepted-risk note. No instrument is called "AI-proof"; none is.
- Accommodation variant always derivable. Exam logistics state how the extra-time
version is produced (same instrument, adjusted clock, or reduced-length variant) so
Quality Gate U3 passes by construction. Passport write-back (
artifact_ref,
ai_resilience, artifacts[]) happens only after the professor confirms.
Outputs
assessments/<id>_<slug>.md — the instrument (exam, quiz, bank, or brief)
assessments/<id>_key.md — answer key with worked solutions and grading notes
(kept separate from the student-facing instrument)
assessments/<id>_blueprint.md — from templates/test_blueprint_template.md
assessments/<id>_rubric.md — when a rubric is built
- (
integrity-check mode) integrity_audit.md
- (
item-analysis mode) item_analysis_report.md + passport iteration_history evidence entry
- (
grade-analysis mode) grade_report.md from templates/grade_report_template.md
(aggregate-only) + an aggregate iteration_history evidence line (via iteration_coach)
- (
group-assessment mode) assessments/<id>_<slug>.md group brief + peer-assessment form
from templates/group_project_template.md, plus its assessments/<id>_rubric.md
- (
accommodate mode) assessments/<id>_<accommodation>_variant.md (modified instrument)
- logistics note — person-affecting, draft-only, never names the condition
- Passport updates:
assessment_plan[].artifact_ref, assessment_plan[].ai_resilience, artifacts[]
References
references/item_writing_rules.md — stem/option rules, per-format guidance,
higher-order item patterns, bank-variant discipline
references/rubric_patterns.md — rubric-type choice logic, descriptor rules,
common defects, TA calibration protocol
references/grade_analysis_guide.md — distribution shapes, cutoff-setting ethics,
curving methods and their fairness tradeoffs, small-N caveats
references/peer_assessment_guide.md — peer-assessment validity evidence,
contribution-adjustment formulas, and pitfalls
references/lms_export_format.md — the question-set JSON the item writers emit so an
exam/quiz reaches the LMS quiz engine. Export with scripts/export_lms.py (GIFT for
Moodle, QTI 2.1 for Canvas/Blackboard); render paper versions to DOCX/PDF with
scripts/render_document.py
templates/test_blueprint_template.md
templates/project_brief_template.md
templates/grade_report_template.md — aggregate-only, non-removable verify-before-posting note
templates/group_project_template.md — TILT brief + roles + peer-assessment form
- Shared:
shared/pedagogy_foundations.md, shared/ai_era_integrity.md,
shared/quality_gate_protocol.md, shared/checkpoint_protocol.md,
shared/course_passport_schema.md