What Npuls' Vision on AI Assessment Means for Programming Education
What Npuls’ 2025 vision on AI-aware assessment says—and what programming educators must decide when applying it to local courses.
TraceYield Insights
5 min read · Updated October 6, 2026
What Npuls means by the Two-Lane Approach
The vision and handreikingen summarize the purpose and audience; the supporting document explains the Two-Lane Approach in more detail. Npuls attributes that approach to prior international practice, research and assessment theory; TraceYield does not claim it as its own model.
What the vision establishes—and what it leaves open
The vision gives institutions a shared direction: relate assessment design to intended outcomes, make room for responsible AI use where it serves learning, and preserve credible decisions about learning. It explicitly leaves the implications dependent on sector, course, learning outcomes and local assessment context.
It does not prescribe an HBO-ICT programming rubric, a specific coding-agent policy, a required transcript, or one nationally mandatory combination of assessment formats. Nor does it endorse TraceYield or validate the interpretation in this article.
A programming-assessment decision, read through that source
Possible application, not Npuls prescription: suppose a course has one outcome about tracing and explaining a short algorithm, and another about using tests to evaluate an AI-assisted change in an existing service. A team might decide that the first outcome needs an individually attributable, controlled check, while the second is taught and assessed through an AI-permitted project with tests and a targeted explanation. This illustrates how different purposes might lead to different conditions; it is not a required mapping from Npuls.
What the principle establishes: AI conditions should be considered in relation to the purpose and intended learning, and the two assessment functions can complement each other. What it does not establish: that these particular formats are valid for this course, that a test or explanation proves learning by itself, or that every programme needs the same design.
What a local programming team still has to decide
A programme or course team must identify which outcomes require direct evidence under controlled conditions, which require students to learn with AI, and whether one activity can serve both purposes without obscuring either. It must then set permitted tools, privacy and access conditions, evidence students can reasonably provide, assessment criteria, moderation and the institution’s examination procedures.
For assignment-level alignment, see How to Assess AI-Assisted Programming Assignments in HBO-ICT. For the broader programme question, see Dutch HBO-ICT programming assessment. The Npuls vision is a source for local deliberation, not a substitute for it.