Joint Information Systems Committee 21/04/23 | | Slide 1

Effective Assessment in a Digital Age

Sarah Knighte-Learning

Programme, JISCRos Smith,

GPI Solutions

A guide to technology-enhanced assessment and feedback

Higher Education Academy Conference 2010

Overview of today’s session

What do you think is important when embedding technology into assessment and feedback practice?

What can we learn from exemplar practice and how should this shape our thinking about the future of assessment and feedback?

Work towards guiding principles for effective assessment in a digital age with key messages from the JISC publication, ‘Effective Assessment in a Digital Age’ to be launched in September 2010

Demonstration of the online peer moderating and assessment tool, WebPA, a case study in the new guide

Explore the benefits and challenges of being assessed by one’s peers

What new dimensions could this add to the assessment methodologies in your disciplinary context?

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Higher Education Academy Conference 2010

e-Learning Programme 2008-2012

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The aim of the JISC e-learning programme is to enable UK further and higher education to create a better learning environment for all learners, wherever and however they study, in order to realise the vision...

…The vision is of a world where learners, teachers, researchers and wider institutional stakeholders use technology to enhance the overall educational experience by improving flexibility and creativity and by encouraging comprehensive and diverse personal, high quality learning, teaching and research.

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By 2012 within this environment…

Learners and teachers are using a mixture of institutionally-provided and user-owned  technologies in a confident and effective manner;

Course teams are effectively exploiting the available technology in all aspects of course design, development and delivery;

Technology-rich physical and online learning, teaching and research spaces are accessible and flexibly designed to reflect an understanding of the learning styles preferences and diversity of their users;

A wide range of learning resources is freely available, easily discovered and routinely re-used.

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What we have been researching…

Institutional approaches to curriculum design;

Transforming curriculum delivery through technology;

Design for learning;

Learner experiences of e-learning and learning literacies in a digital Age;

Development of open educational resources in the Open Educational Resources programme.

Course Design

Session Planning

Activity Design

Learning Object Design

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Assessment and feedback in a digital age

‘Effective assessment and feedback can be defined as practice that equips learners to demonstrate skills and understanding in the complex disciplinary fields of their choice, and to progress with confidence and skill as lifelong learners, without adding to the burden on academic staff.’

The potential technology offers for the achievement of these aims, although

still under-utilised, is considerable.’

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The guide

A companion to JISC (2009) Effective Practice in a Digital Age, and JISC (2007) Effective Practice with e-Assessment

Explores principles underpinning effective learning, assessment and feedback

Includes ten new case studies featuring different challenges associated with assessment and feedback

Illustrates embedded use of a wide range of technologies – from Web 2.0 to e-assessment tools and technologies

Captures practitioner voices - where people currently are;

Introduces planning tool – looking to the future;

Accompanying online resources: video clips, full-length

case studies and podcasts. www.jisc.ac.uk/digiassess

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Findings...

Implementation of some form of technology is now found in a wide spectrum of assessment and feedback activity

Differentiation between delivery and management tools and supporting technologies;

Delivery and management tools extend boundaries of current practice:

– adaptive assessments

– greater discriminatory power

– quality assurance - speed of feedback enables rapid pedagogic response

Supporting technologies help establish standards, protocols and procedures (online submission via Turnitin), and provide greater range and variety of assignment formats (wikis, blogs, e-portfolios, digital audio, video and still images etc)

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Findings...

Traditional forms of e-assessment (computer-assisted/online assessment) established in centres of excellence and experience but not widely embraced;

Free-to-use and familiar technologies (Google Apps, blogging tools, wikis) gaining ground

Podcasts, audio and video-recorded feedback personalise feedback and reduce workload (Audacity)

Practitioners willing to innovate; aligning technology-enhanced learning and teaching with technology-enabled assessment and feedback

But technology still not widely embedded in assessment practice; wider dissemination of the most effective concepts and tools is still needed

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Introducing WebPA…

‘Telling learners how to improve increases dependence on the guidance of others and is an unsustainable strategy for improving performance. (Sadler 2010). On the other hand, learners who can develop their own skills of appraisal – for example, by assessing and giving one another feedback – acquire greater understanding of the standards they aspire to attain.’

Effective Assessment in a Digital Age (JISC 2010)

Try this out for yourselves....

Higher Education Academy Conference 2010

Please participate…

Key points for effective assessment in a digital age

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Higher Education Academy Conference 2010

Find out more

A number of supplementary resources will be available to accompany Effective Assessment in a Digital Age:

■ Video clips

■ Podcasts

www.jisc.ac.uk/assessresource

Text-only and PDF formats of Effective Assessment in a Digital Age will be available to download from: www.jisc.ac.uk/digiassess

Launch date: ALT-C September 2010

Email: s.knight@jisc.ac.uk

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