assessment

DigCompEdu has considered Assessment under three competencies and we will now look at examples of how these might be addressed along with discussion of relevant technologies.

4.1 Assessment strategies

A key competency here is knowing which technologies are effective in planning and undertaking assessment in the courses for which you are responsible.

Planning assessment, including scheduling, the distribution of assignments, their collation, and the analysis of results to monitor the progress of the course and the students can all be done with careful combinations of tools including those generally available in office type software and the LMS/VLE. However, usually a key issue is that of security and integrity and you need to develop good practices with regards access to files, passwords, and use of official tools rather than personal licences. Similarly, you also need to ensure that you are well aware of your and your institutions' obligations under data protection and the privacy of student personal information.

Some institutions have a centralised platform or suite of assessment management tools and services in addition to the standard assessment, assignment, and quiz capabilities of the VLE/LMS. This can allow an institutional, or sub-unit (eg College or Faculty) overview, allow standardisation using templates, coordinated scheduling and the processing of the entire assessment workflow. Current commercial examples of these types of system include Inspera, Wiseflow, and others.

Some of the tools we have discussed in the context of active learning can also be used for formative assessment and informal quizzes, such as polling apps (eg Mentimeter, Vevox). For MCQs and other basic forms of questions (fill in blank, matching pairs, free text entry) even simple survey software such as MS Forms or Google Forms are perfectly capable, easy to use, and can be integrated into the VLE/LMS, accessed on mobile devices, etc. Again, though, care needs to be taken with regards any data privacy aspects. The LMS/VLE will also have its own quizzing tools or other third party software purchased for this purpose. H5P can be used to add multimedia and interactive aspects and with a little training it is possible for any lecturer to learn how to use this and embed it within their courses.

The widespread availability of digital technologies, such as mobile phones, laptops, etc, mean that the possible range of assessment types we can use with students can be expanded beyond the traditional essay and examination. Video productions, audio materials and podcasts, multimedia presentations, case studies, and academic journals, are all possible, along with combining reflection and detailing a 'learning journey' through the use of e-Portfolios and shared learning spaces. Whilst we spoke about some of these technologies in the context of teaching and producing teaching materials, we can see that it is entirely feasible to expect students to be able to use them to produce artefacts for assessment. Assessing such media requires, of course, a well understood (by the students and you!) set of criteria and rubrics.

Rubrics are a powerful tool for assisting the process of grading and giving feedback to students. It can take time to develop an effective rubric, but it is time well spent when one considers their multiple uses. Most LMS/VLEs have tools for creating and using rubrics. There can be a danger of being overly prescriptive, or of not being sufficiently clear to students in the language used in rubrics, so it does need thought and can often benefit from feedback from colleagues, or a joint collective design for standard rubrics for particular types of assessment. Here are some examples of rubrics and guidelines for drafting them:
- Short guide to developing rubrics (University of Galway)
- A more detailed discussion of rubric design and how to use them to promote learning (Maynooth University)
- Some examples from Carnegie Mellon University and the Association of American Colleges and Universities

Proctoring or Invigilation of examinations has also been an area of considerable debate that arose during and after the COVID-19 pandemic when institutions sought to find ways of running secure examinations online. Rather than simply basing on trust and 'honour codes', proctoring technologies allow teachers or administrators to monitor individual students during the scheduled examination through a combination of webcam video, microphone audio, and screen recording. Some services provide this through human 'proctors' whilst more recent developments are based on the use of AI to inspect the data and determine whether or not 'suspicious behaviour' has occurred and thus trigger an alert. This has been highly contentious in a number of cases in which it has been deployed, with issues around AI bias, possible discriminatory interpretations, and intrusion of privacy being raised. However, the approach is regularly used within some particular contexts associated with accredited professional qualifications.

Reflection

Does your institution have a dedicated assessment management platform in addition to a VLE/LMS?
Do your courses and programmes use Rubrics for assessment and/or for providing student feedback?
Have you experience of 'online proctoring' for examinations and assessment and, if so, what is your perspective on this?

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