e-assessment (f)or learning

I’m just back from my second attendance at a JISC Learning and Teaching Practice Experts Group meeting. It was excellent – it is inspiring to be surrounded by people who know such a lot about learning and teaching and, more importantly, actually care about the student experience.

Half the day was spent discussing some of the early outcomes from the new JISC Assessment and Feedback Programme. I was involved in an unsuccessful bid to this programme, but can truly say that I am happy not to have been successful (not sure what my colleagues think!).  I’m just SO busy and it is nice to learn from others rather than being in the thick of it. (more…)

We have funding from the HEA for a seminar on self-assessment that we (Tony Gardner-Medwin and me) are running at the OU in Milton Keynes  on 11th June 2012.

It’s a really interesting topic and we have some excellent speakers lined up. How does testing affect learning – for good or ill? What part does ipsative assessment have to play? How about certainty-based marking? And there will be an update on the Moodle quiz engine. Click on OU_prog  for the  full programme or on http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgbarg/OU_workshop.htm for more information (including booking information).

Do come!

I’m indebted to Phil Langton to pointing me towards an article by Steven Schwartz in Times Higher Education. The article, Get back in the saddle, explores the way in which failure and life’s knocks can lead to success in the future.

The theme is similar to that discussed in comments on a previous post of mine. I think it is certainly the case that we sometimes molycoddle our students. It doesn’t seem right to be deliberately hard or harsh in our grading or feedback, but I think we should be honest. If a student’s work is not up to the mark, we should tell them. It may be painful for all, but if the article is to believed (and it rings true) this approach may be just what is needed in order to encourage our students to succeed in the future.