What constitutes fair and valid e-assessment?

WHAT CONSTITUTES FAIR AND VALID E-ASSESSMENT?

(or why you should be using e-assessment!)

Michael CoghlanTAFE SA21/5/10

TECHNOLOGY ANDASSESSMENT -

HISTORICAL SNAPSHOT

1989

THE TECHNOLOGY

PHOTOS

http://flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/1345266896/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/khedara/445340228/

•User has total editorial control•No third party need be involved•DISINTERMEDIATION (the decline of the gatekeepers)

THE DIGITAL AGE

HERE COMES EVERYBODY

Clay Shirky

PERSONAL PUBLISHING/ PARTICIPATORY MEDIA TOOLS

• Blogs (written text)• Podcasts (audio)• Wikis (collaborative workspaces)==================================• Flickr (photo sharing)• Video repositories (YouTube, Google Video, BlipTV,

TeacherTube, etc)• Social Networking (Facebook, MySpace, Ning, Bebo,

Orkut, etc)

} Now often indistinguishable from each other as they all now house text and all available media.

estimated to account for 20%of all Internet traffic!!!

Why does mediamatter?

• Adrian Miles (RMIT):“ make our institution…more porous to the students’ private technologies – their mobile phones, their laptops and their cameras.”

• Innate human desire/need to create• Ubiquity and ease of participatory media enables creation of

images, film, documents, course content, assessments, etc• develops Digital Literacy

http://flickr.com/photos/chunyang/800589975/

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY - Who finds reading/writing difficult?

• English as Second or Other Language Learners (ESOL)

• People with low levels of literacy• Those with little recent formal learning

experience• Those with poor keyboard skills• Those who prefer an auditory style of learning


Margaret Willis, Director of NSW VETAB (mp3)

Margaret Willis, Director of NSW VETAB (wav)

• “nothing is necessarily out”• engage and defend• starting point is not technology

CONTEXT

MANY:

•Teachers feel insecure around e-assessment•Teachers don’t feel e-assessment will be acceptable to auditors•Auditors don’t feel confident in their ability to evaluate e-assessment•Auditors have seen quite a lot of very poor e-assessment

Background image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zerantuno/4219336807/

Victor Callan (The University of Queensland) Berwyn Clayton (Victoria University)

http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/files/Eassessment_AQTF_final.pdf

http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/files/Eassessment_AQTF_final.pdf

E-ASSESSMENT

62% of RTOs are using e-assessment. It is used mainly for:

• Diagnostic purposes• Formative assessment

Rarely used for Summative Assessment (eg to sign off a unit of competence, or whole qualification)

E-ASSESSMENT – some problems

• Validity – “often did not address intended learning outcomes”

• Authentication – those who wish to cheat will always be one step ahead;

better to “build and maintain supportive and effective relationships with learners”; design negotiated, collaborative assessment tasks

• Online Quizzes– often poorly constructed; teachers underestimate the

skills and effort required to design good quiz questions

Is a video created by an apprentice using POVtechnology somewhere in remote Australia sufficientto prove that s/he is competent at fitting service gauges?

WHAT CONSTITUTES FAIR AND VALID E- ASSESSMENT?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrGbfYkuu8E

Are voice recordings of a student engaged In a scenario posed online on a voice discussion board enough to show a lecturer, and auditor,that they have the customer relationship skills required for a unit of competence in hospitality?


WHAT CONSTITUTES FAIR AND VALID E- ASSESSMENT?

Is an assignment conducted entirely in a Learning ManagementSystem (Blackboard, Janison, Moodle) where there is no paper record of the task, or the assessment activity, acceptable?

Is a video created by a student of one of hispeers to demonstrate their competence in thesafe use of hand and power tools sufficient evidence for an auditor?

Is a video, or photographs, created by a student ontheir mobile phone showing the various stages of cutting someone’s hair sufficient to demonstratecompetence?


http://www.flickr.com/photos/judybaxter/813957814/

SO WHAT CONSTITUTE FAIR AND VALID E-ASSESSMENT?

SO WHAT CONSTITUTE FAIR AND VALID E-ASSESSMENT?

Blue Dog Training (Engineering) QLD• Interactive online quizzes• Electronic skills profile (type of eportfolio)

– Photographic and journal evidence– Series of complex online tasks that test underpinning knowledge

• Work closely with on the job supervisors – interview supervisors and students

• Frequency of tasks and photographic evidence recorded• Build effective relationships with learners and employers• ie: USE A VARIETY OF APPROACHES

http://www.bluedogtraining.com.au/

Blue Dog Trainer:

• How do I know that written report is the student’s work? I know because it is one piece of several pieces of assessment. I know in particular because I have developed a relationship with that student. I talk to them by mail and phone, and also I talk to their employer when I can. Any good teacher seeks such validation.”

THE EPORTFOLIO APPROACH

DON’T GET HUNG UP ON THE ‘E’

ALL THE USUAL RULES AND PRINCIPLES APPLY TO BOTH E- AND NON E- ASSESSMENT

Image courtesy of Barbara Ganley http://www.flickr.com/photos/bg/

The Question of Values

Our philosophy determines how we perceive and deal with our preferred teaching methods – which includes how (or if) we choose and use e-learning technologies. (http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/04_Anderson_2008_Kanuka-Online_Learning.pdf)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/konarheim/4073209881

LAST WORDGive your students the opportunity to create media for assessments and assignments. You don’t need to know how to create movies, podcasts, etc, but you do need to be aware of what options are out there that may exploit students’ abilities with new technologies.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fishgirl7/3577452931

Workshops to support the implementation of the Framework’s E-assessment and the AQTF report

STATE DATE

ACT June 10th

NSW tba

SA June 18th

VIC July 29th

NT tba

TAS June 15th

WA tba

QLD June 23rd

Information and registration - contact the E-learning Coordinator in your state or territory: http://flexiblelearning.net.au/e-learningcoordinators

Recording of live Elluminate session from May 12th at http://tinyurl.com/2bmpen7

Michael CoghlanTAFE SAe: [email protected]

Education

What constitutes fair and valid e-assessment?