e-assessment (f)or learning

I was at a meeting in Bristol yesterday ‘Using assessment to engage students and enhance their learning’. Much of the discussion was on the use of peer assessment (and plenty of interesting stuff), with a keynote from Paul Orsmond, considering student and tutor behaviour inside and outside the formal curriculum.

However, what struck me most was something reported in a presentation from Harriet Jones of the Biosciences Department at the University of East Anglia (UEA). They want students to make their own notes so have made a conscious decision to stop giving out lecture notes (though copies of presentations used in lectures are available on their VLE 48 hours before each lecture, for those who want to download a copy and also for students who want to check something later). It’s a brave decision but also, I think, a very sensible one.