Digital Assessment

Designing Learning-oriented Assessment for a Digital

Future

Transforming Assessment in a Digital Era31st July - 1st August 2013

Professor Mike KeppellExecutive Director

Australian Digital Futures InstituteDirector, Digital Futures - CRN

1Thursday, 1 August 13

Overview

nTrends and challenges nNew generation studentsn InteractionsnLearning-oriented

assessmentnPersonalised learning nChallengesnNew mindsets

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What Trends do we Need to Consider?


Beyond Current HorizonsnNetworking and

connections - distributed cognition

n Increasing personalisation and customisation of experience

nNew forms of literacy

nOpenness of ownership of knowledge (Jewitt, 2009).

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Horizon Report

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Trends ‣ People expect to be able to work, learn, and

study whenever and wherever they want.

‣ The abundance of resources and relationships will challenge our educational identity.

‣ Students want to use their own technology for learning.

‣ Personalisation - learning, teaching, place of learning and technologies

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New Generation Students


Student-generated content (learner-as-designers)

Connected students (knowledge is in the network)


Owning the Place of Learning

rapport with

technology

mobile

generate content

personalise

connected

adapt space to

their needs


Interactions


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Interactive learning (learner-to-content)

Networked learning (learner-to-learner; learner-to-teacher)

Student-generated content (learner-as-designers).

Connected students (knowledge is in the network)

Learning-oriented assessment (assessment-as-learning)

Interactions


Learning-oriented Assessment


Assessment 2020Assessment has been most effective when:

n feedback is used to actively improve student learning

nstudents and teachers become responsible partners in learning and assessment

nassessment for learning is placed at the centre of subject and program design

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Learning-oriented Assessment

Assessment tasks as learning

tasks

Student involvement in

assessment processes

Forward-looking feedback


nAssessment tasks determine student effort

nStudents also fulfil the measurement requirement of the subject/curriculum.

nTasks should require distribution of student time and effort (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004)

Assessment Tasks as Learning Tasks

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Student Involvement in Assessment nStudents begin to learn about assessmentnStudents begin to determine the quality of their own work

nStudents learn about reflection, peer feedback and self-evaluation

nSome degree of student choice in assessment tasks.

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Forward-looking Feedback

nStudents need to receive appropriate feedback which they can use to ‘feed forward’ into future work.

nFeedback should be less final and judgemental (Boud, 1995)

nFeedback should be more interactive and forward-looking (Carless, 2002)

nFeedback should be timely and with a potential to be acted upon (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004)

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Personalised Learning


Personal Learning Spaces

‣ Integrate formal and informal learning spaces

‣ Customised by the individual to suit their needs

‣ Allow individuals to create their own identities.

‣ Recognises ongoing learning and the need for tools to support life-long and life-wide learning.

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Connectivism

‣ Knowledge has changed to networks and ecologies (Siemens, 2006).

‣ Need improved lines of communication in networks.

‣ “Connectivism is the assertion that learning is primarily a network-forming process” (p. 15).

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ePortfolios in Assessment

nEmbedding an ePortfolio into the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary)

nIteratively designed throughout the four years (Munday, 2010).

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Types and Purposes of ePortfolios

nAssessment - formative and summative, learning-oriented, feed-forward

nShowcase ‘best’ work to peers, teachers, potential employers

nDevelopment over time to show changes in thinking.

nReflective - personal and professional, critical/analytical as opposed to descriptive (Stefani, Mason & Pegler, 2007)

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Embedding of ePortfoliosnDifferent purposes of ePortfolios

throughout degree.n1st year - development/showcase/

assessmentn2nd year - reflection/assessmentn3rd year - development - self-directedn4th year - showcase and leadership

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Characteristics of the Assessment Task

nAlignment of learning outcomes, content and assessment

nDistribution of student time and effort throughout degree program

nDegree of student choice in assessment tasknRelationship between assessment task and real-

world tasknPortfolio could be utilised for different purposes

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Challenges


Digital LiteraciesnLiteracy is no longer “the ability

to read and write” but now “the ability to understand information however presented.”

nCan't assume students have skills to interact in a digital age

nLiteracies will allow us to teach more effectively in a digital age (JISC, 2012)

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Accountability and Trust

nAccountability of assessment practices is common due to the need for standards

nPlagiarism and a lack of trust may influence the types of assessment undertaken

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Group Projects

nEquitable contributionnPeer assessment of other

students may send mixed signals

nPeer learning and peer assessment are about students providing feedback to each other

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New Mindsets


New MindsetsnPrivileging mobile learning and

teaching access

nEmbedding digital literacies into all aspects of learning, teaching and curriculum

nPrivileging diverse places of learning as opposed to a singular place of learning

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New MindsetsnAssisting teachers and students

to develop their own personalised learning strategy

nPrivileging user-generated content

nPrivileging learning-oriented assessment

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Questions?
