Effective Assessment in a digital Age: Four blended elements below on one of the module at level 7 for both classroom and online sessions.  

First is the social constructivist perspective- dialogue and collaboration with others (peers and lecturer) are seen as a key to learning success. This is where assessment would involve group tasks and assignments, sometimes with individual contributions being assessed. 

Second is the situative perspective- which sees learning as arising from communities of practice. It reflects formation aspects where assessment tasks would be modelled on what happens in professional practice; feedback would involve peers, disciplinary experts and those in relevant roles and professions. 

Third is a blended way of formative and summative assessment and feedback. Formative assessment is extensively used around the model of self-regulated learning by evaluating, generating feedback on others, judgments from others, encouraging lecturer–learner and peer dialogue. Summative assessment is to capture learning at one point in time and this usually at the end of the term. 

Fourth is the use of technology to enhance learning. It is designed to help both lecturer and learner to provide better learning and assessments. As the technology is becoming broader and smarter, many facilities should be available for all.  For example, smart boards, websites, similarity software, video plugs, double-screens in one class and digital storytelling and individual and group videos. 

 

-Both individual and community levels for learning and assessments. 

-Team based learning for teaching, learning and assessments.

-Assessment more related to better validity and real-life cases. 

-Better performance and grades.

-More accurate results from using high-technologies.  

 

-Limited skills of group interactions 

-Limited of cognitive learning.

-Ignorance of individual cases.

-Plagiarism and dependency.

- Limited of technological facilities

I think the benefit of introducing an assessed vlog would encourage students to reflect deeper, earlier on in their placement, about how their skills and knowledge are changing because of the experience they are gaining.  Written reflective assignments at the end of each semester are likely to miss the ‘raw’ feelings that students feel at the start of their placement, where a vlog would capture them as they happen, thus providing better reflection, and a greater appreciation and understanding of how the individual is developing.

The main challenge with this approach is that the module it would best fit does not look at the development of the individual, but external factors affecting their host placement organisation.  The learning outcomes would need to be amended to bring in some sort of personal reflection element, or the use of a vlog would be purely formative and therefore rely more on students choosing to participate.  The value in it would remain the same to the student, but participation rates are likely to fall.

I very much like the 'Using group blogs to demonstrate learning' idea.  This would aid students over the course of the module to reflect upon their experiences of the practical application of using Office 365 tools within their own teaching. This approach also offers several benefits in that they could even do this 'blog' within either Microsoft Teams or within a shared Class Notebook, further developing their familiarity with and knowledge of using the Office 365 tools. It would also support Peer to peer learning as students would be able to share freely what went well, what went badly and then comment on and delve into each others' experiences. The challenge would be, is this better placed as an individual blog, or is it better to work collaboratively with others on the module (such as within small groups of approx four students) to create a joint blog. If it was the latter, it would better aid students to work together and assist them in jointly refining each other's further work (such as with upcoming lesson plans). Alternatively, a joint blog would be difficult to attribute the contributions of individual users or may cause friction within the small teams due to them not all equally putting in the same effort. Presenting students with clear guidelines would help solve or mitigate these issues.

One technology that is already being used for our level 4 and 5 students is the use of Pebblepad for practice placement. There are 24 objectives that students needed to complete during practice placement. They are responsible for making the objective tailor made to their placement, and then to provide evidence. This evidence is confirmed with their practice educator during supervision. This also provides opportunity to discuss the student’s learning and to set new goals. Pebblepad is also used for practice educator’s to record the outcome of their mid-placement visits . Additionally,  it is a summative assessment team, first marked by the practice educator and then moderated by the University practice placement team. 

An e- assessment tool that might work well for the module that I have been considering called “Understanding Occupational Beings” is using group task and assignments. We do this in L5 (Occupational Engagement) but not as a specific e-assessment. The students work in groups and they build their own forums such as whatsapp groups or using one drive to share work. This kind of shared work group could be introduced somehow on the shared NILE site. This type of assessment has a social constructivist perspective as “dialogue and collaboration are seen as key to learning success” and it “emphasises the roles of others in constructing understanding” (Davies 2010) 

 

 

 

I see a lot of benefits in assessment FOR learning, as it facilitates students’ construction of knowledge through, among others, self-reflection. 

One form of e-assessment I would particularly like to embed in my course is a discussion forum. The topic of the discussion would be related to previous experience of presentations, a reflection on the presentation given as part of assessment, and advice how to improve. 

I see it particularly valid as it offers students a chance to self-reflect, peer-evaluate, and offer and receive personalised advice, not only from the tutor, but from peers. I treat it more as formative assessment, leading to improved performance in future presentations, which can be summatively assessed by tutors. 

The challenges that I am aware of stem from the fact that Asian students are not comfortable with judging others, including their peers. They also expect to be told in a straightforward way what is expected from them, rather than self-reflect. As their culture is the culture of shame, they are quite unwilling to come forward and criticise or be criticised. 

A way around this problem is to carefully explain what the purpose of the discussion forum is, and keep an active and encouraging presence as a moderator of the discussion. 

In my current practice, an assessment method we use is a “microteach”. As one of the courses I teach on is the Award in Education & Training (an introductory teacher training course), students plan and deliver a 15 minute microteach on an area of their choosing. This works excellently as an assessment as students can put into practice their learning and can also choose a topic which is very individual to them. 

Reflecting on the different approaches, to enhance the above method I would like to ask students to upload their lesson plan and their reflection on how the microteach went on their VLE and then ask students to comment and discuss each other’s lessons (similar to a discussion board). 

The benefits would be that peer assessment would take place and students would give feedback to each other on their plans and delivery. It could also promote collaborative learning and students can continue their microteach development even after the delivery, enabling further reflection to take place.

The potential challenges is the monitoring of the comments and feedback being made: some student may be too critical for example. Ensuring every student engages with the task and gives feedback to others could also be a challenge. 

I think a blog is a great idea for your module and would enable students to track and reflect on progress made. You could consider structuring it like a journal, where students make entries every week on their progress and how they utilised Office 365 into their practice. Using Office 365 to create this, as you mentioned, is another big advantage! 

Jamie

I see there are three main challenges. Firstly the technology, I believe it is possible to recorded via turnitin but unsure of the format / editing options and, again I believe, the duration is only three minutes. Will three minutes be enough time? Secondly, should I need to have a script rather than free flowing to keep each audio feedback to a consistent template, especially in avoiding misunderstandings in the terminology / phases used. Finally, what about my voice, the tone, accent, speed etc. will I be understood? 

Technology-enhanced element: Designed in a social constructivist perspective, the activity will allow learners to actively participate in stock trading activity and build their understanding around the concepts and structure of stock portfolio management process. Students will have virtual (fancy) money amounting £10,000. Trading will last for 6 weeks and students will enter a reason for his/her decision to buy/sell/hold stocks in the online trading activities logs.

Assessment: (formative assessment with the flexibility to give adaptive feedback) Participants' performance will be assessed online by analysing their stocks portfolio management records (downloadable in MS Excel format). Following elements will be considered in the assessment:
1) Frequency of stock trading (buy and sell both) activity

2) Volume and value of stocks traded

3) Reasons assigned for buy/sell/hold decisions

4) Amount of (risk adjusted) profit/loss made on gross and net basis

5) Level of portfolio diversification (to be checked at random points during the trading period)

Most of the assessment parameters listed above are visible on your trading screens at any point in time during the trading period. To allow students to benchmark their performance. 

Main challenge in this approach is encouraging participants to sign-up on a virtual trading platform (outside the university infrastructure) and that may involve getting permissions from the exam and quality departments.