e-assessment (f)or learning

I was talking at the eSTEeM Conference last week about the fact that, whilst our interactive computer-marked assessment (iCMA) questions are generally well liked by our students, occasional questions can cause problems (usually because we are not giving sufficiently targeted feedback, so students don’t understand why the answer they have given is wrong). Why not, someone said, have  an ‘unsound’ button? Well, we used to have such a function for our short-answer free text questions (shown below in use back in 2007) and it wasn’t my choice to stop using it. This post considers the pros and cons. (more…)

If learning that lasts is active and independent, integrative and experiential, assessment must judge performance in contexts related to life roles.

If learning that lasts is self-aware, reflective, self assessed and self-regarding, assessment must include explicitness of expected outcomes, public criteria and student self assessment.

If learning that lasts is developmental and individual, assessment must include multiplicity and be cumulative and expansive.

If learning that lasts is interactive and collaborative, assessment must include feedback and external perspectives as well as performance.

If learning that lasts is situated and transferable, assessment must be multiple in its mode and context.

Mentkowski, M. (2006) Accessible and adaptable elements of Alverno student assessment-as-learning: strategies and challenges for peer review. In Innovative assessment in Higher Education ed. Bryan, C & Clegg, K.V., London U.K., Routledge, pp48-63.

‘When the cook tastes the soup it is formative evaluation; when the dinner guest tastes the soup it is summative evaluation’

Harvey, J. (1998) Evaluation cookbook. Edinburgh: Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative. http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/cookbook/ pg 7.

Note: this is about formative and summative evaluation, but gives some interesting ideas for assessment too.

‘We are just beginning to have a small idea of the real extent of the possibilities for online assessment.’

Howell, S. C. and Hricko, M. (eds) (2006) Online assessment and measurement: case studies from higher education, K-12 and corporate. Information Science Publishing. pg xvii

‘[there] are tensions associated with e-assessment in which practices are driven by state-of-the-art technological know-how rather than pedagogy.’

Daly, C., Pachler,N., Mor, Y. & Mellar, H. (2010) Exploring formative e-assessment; using case stories and design patterns. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Eduction, 35(5), 619-636.

‘Assessment is the ‘tail that wags the dog’…’

Dysthe, O. (2008) The challenges of assessment in a new learning culture. In Havnes, A. and McDowell, L. (eds).  Balancing dilemmas in assessment and learning in contemporary education. Routledge/Taylor and Francis. pp15-28.

‘Assessment does not stand outside teaching and learning but stands in dynamic interaction with it.’

Gipps, C.V. (1994) Beyond testing: towards a theory of educational assessment. London, Falmer. pg15.

‘..the interaction between assessment and learning was likened to a three legged race, in which neither partner can make progress without the others’ contribution.’

Harding, R. and Raikes, N. (2002) ICT in assessment and learning: the evolving role of an external examinations board. Maths CAA Series (http://ltsn.mathstore.ac.uk/articles/maths-caa-series/feb2002/index.shtml)

I was looking for something lighter for a Sunday afternoon and came across this. I haven’t read the original paper, just a reference to it, but I reckon that ‘Orangoutang score’ is more fun than ‘random guess score’.

‘The Orangoutang score is that score on a standardised reading test that can be obtained by a well-trained Orangoutang under these special conditions. A slightly hungry Orangoutang is placed in a small cage that has an oblong window and four buttons. The Orangoutang has been trained that every time the reading teacher places a neatly typed multiple choice item in a reading test in the oblong window, all that he (the Orangoutang) has to do to get a bit of banana is to press a button, any of these buttons, which, incidentally, are labelled A, B, C and D.’

Fry, E. (1971) The Orangoutang score. Reading Teacher, 24, 360-2.

‘The formative assessment for Anne was not a supportive step toward summative assessment, but a significant hurdle in its own right; a moment of judgement of her aptitude for higher education and her identity. Therefore, for Anne, the formative process was one of anxious torment’ [pg515]

‘For our participants, as one assessment hurdle is jumped, another looms darkly in the distance.’ [pg517]

Cramp, A., Lamond, C., Coleyshaw, L & Beck, S. (2012). Empowering or disabling? Emotional reactions to assessment amongst part-time adult students. Teaching in Higher Education, 17(5), 509-521 [pg515]