Challenge to Change Delegate Contributions – Effective Assessment in a Digital Age Workshop, London 20 January 2011

 

Background

Thames Valley University. Undergraduate Hospitality students. PDP was already embedded in paper format.

Challenge to change experience

We switched from paper-based PDP to an electronic format using PebblePad. We backed up the transition with a site on the VLE (a familiar technology) to explain the purpose of PDP and the value of the new technology (e-portfolios) to staff and students.

Benefits and issues

Pros: PebblePad is a secure online environment that supports flexible ways of working any time anywhere, and supports online submission via its Gateways, making online assessment easier for staff.

Cons: Teething issues with the technology and with staff and students understanding what the technology involves; requires early engagement with technology.

Moderator comment: Also have a look at Effective Practice in a Digital Age Extended case studies: Enabling autonomous learning(a case study on introducing PebblePad on a Level 4 BTEC HNC course at Thanet College, www.jisc.ac.uk/resourceexchange

 

Background

Royal Holloway. A peer marking assessment exercise with third-year group of 15 students sold to students as an exciting way of improving their graduate employability skills.

Challenge to change experience

We embedded Turnitin into the programme (to address the lack of diversity and informative feedback). Staff updating information fairly last minute. Student recognition.

Benefits and issues

You need to plan, plan, plan ahead.

Establish a ‘constructive alignment’ by getting students involved in similar work in years 1 and 2.

Get stakeholders involved (in the planning).

Moderator comment: Not quite sure how this worked out in practice from the brief notes given. Would love to know more as it sounds really interesting. Great advice though on implementing technology-based practice.

 

 

Background

Anglia Ruskin University. Level 3 courses.

Challenge to change experience

I needed to push students towards working between taught sessions and to develop better self-assessment skills in f2f sessions, so set up a discussion board on the VLE with short tasks for students to complete between classes. Students were required to respond to other students’ contributions and the tutor always responded to interesting and challenging posts.

Keep in mind

Student engagement varies. My response was to:

Upload a spreadsheet showing who had contributed and how much, and who had not. (Students were only identified by their SID so that only the individual knew his/her result). This didn’t work so

I ran what would have been a f2f seminar online with discussion board follow-up work. This did work!

I allowed quotations from work done on the discussion board as evidence in summative assessment (as part of the required word count.)

Moderator comment: Many people tell us that tutors need to engage initially in technology-enabled approaches like this, but can then take a back-seat ie the timing of workload for tutors is different to traditional assessment but in the end there is a significant time saving. See also a groundbreaking REAP project in first year psychology www.reap.ac.uk/reap/assessment/pilotsSUPsy.html

 

Background

Everywhere!

Challenge to change experience

Moving away from traditional assessment and implementing technology. What is the best way to do this?

Keep in mind

Use appropriate technology and be flexible ie have a set system but allow students to ‘go round it’. Start and end together but in between is up to you!

Moderator comment: A valuable piece of advice!

 

 

 

 

 

Background

Online MA in professional communication with mature students.

Challenge to change experience

We needed a talking point which visualised key concepts without adding in all the details and used Wordle (http://www.wordle.net) as a tool for formative assessment. Also addresses different learning styles and can support self-assessment. Makes a good poster session.

Benefits and issues

This approach can support formative assessment and develop discussion. It could be used further for formal assessment with some computing development.

Moderator comment: I needed a bit more information to tell this story, but what an interesting idea. Tell us more!

 

Background

Peer to peer assessment and feedback (No setting given)

Challenge to change experience

When introducing peer assessment, there is the challenge of ensuring parity of contribution in group tasks. You need to be able to track contributions and ensure that peer assessment sticks to the criteria. We use the VLE to communicate expectations about the task and to make the criteria available to students (pre-task). A wiki allows their dialogue to be transparent.

Moderator comment: It sounds as if the VLE is the platform used here for peer assessment – useful as it is a familiar technology. Also have a look at WebPA, an online purpose-designed peer assessment tool, outlined in an Effective Assessment in a Digital Agecase study, Facilitating peer and self-assessment at www.jisc.ac.uk/digiassessAND in the accompanying video, also called Facilitating peer and self assessment at www.jisc.ac.uk/assessresource

 

General messages

Overcoming resistance from staff:

>Identify champions to look after module coordinators (a shift of responsibility)

>Use peer pressure – paired buddies

> Use student pressure – feedback from students forwarded to staff

>Demonstrate benefits eg online markers get an extra week (for other work) – technology enables time saving

>Make it (the technology) ‘compulsory’ - driven top-down by heads of departments and reinforced by staff appraisal processes

Use a VLE facility to ensure that students respond to feedback .

There is sometimes no technology based solution ie appraising teachers in a classroom situation.