Transcript Assessment trends in the UK

‘Fit for purpose’ assessment:
implications of using CAA
Sally Brown
SCROLLA conference February 2002
Why might we want to change the
assessment methods and
approaches we use, overall and
what impact is CAA having on
our thinking?
“Assessment methods and
requirements probably have a
greater influence on how and
what students learn than any
other single factor. This
influence may well be of greater
importance than the impact of
teaching materials” (Boud 1988)
“Students can avoid bad
teaching:they can’t avoid bad
assessment.” (Boud 1994)
Assessment in any case is
becoming more:
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diverse
student-centred
focused on evidence
practice-orientated
efficient of staff time
fit-for-purpose
directed nationally towards
benchmarks/threshold standards
A fit-for-purpose model of
assessment: the key questions
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Why are we assessing?
What is it we are actually assessing?
How are we assessing?
Who is best placed to assess?
When should we assess?
Why are we assessing?
Choosing the reasons for assessment;
these may include:
• Enabling students to get the measure of their
achievement
• Helping them consolidate their learning
• Providing feedback so they can improve and
remedy deficiencies
• motivating students to engage in the learning
• providing them with opportunities to relate
theory and practice
more purposes...
• Helping students make sensible choices about
option alternatives and directions for further
study
• demonstrating student employability
• providing assurance of fitness to practice
• giving feedback to teachers on effectiveness
• providing statistics for internal and external
agencies
Formative and summative
assessment: two ends of a
continuum
• Formative assessment, primarily concerned
with feedback aimed at improvement, often
continuous and usually involves words:
CAA is extremely useful
• Summative assessment is concerned with
evaluative judgments , often end point and
involves numbers/grades:CAA can be used
but needs careful setting up
Choosing what we assess: how
does CAA fit?
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product or process?
theory or practice?
subject knowledge or application?
what we’ve always assessed?
what it’s easy to assess?
Good assessment is about
description, evaluation and
suggestions for remediation.
It must be valid and assess what it
really claims to assess
Exploring diverse approaches
Choosing the approaches and methods we use for
assessment contribute to a ‘fit-for-purpose’
approach. CAA as much as other approaches
needs to do the job well
A variety of approaches
• Self assessment
• peer assessment
• group-based assessment
• negotiated learning programmes
• work-based assessment
and
• computer-assisted assessment
Choosing diverse assessment
methods?
• essays, unseen written exams, reports
• portfolios, projects, vivas, assessed
seminars, poster presentations, annotated
bibliographies, logs, diaries, reflective
journals, critical incident accounts,
artefacts, productions, case studies, field
studies, exhibitions, critiques, theses…….
Alternatives to traditional exams
Open-book exams Take-away papers
Case studies
Simulations
Objective Structured Clinical Examinations
(OSCEs)
Short answer questions
In-tray exercises
Live assignments
• Multiple choice Questions
Choosing diverse methods of
assessment is valuable because:
• all assessment methods disadvantage some
students
• we can access thereby a wider range of
students abilities and skills
• assessment can then become an integral
purpose of learning
• we can learn from the experiences of others
Choosing who is best placed to
assess
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tutor assessment
self-assessment
peer assessment, (either inter or intra peer)
employers,practice tutors and line managers
client assessment
CAA can involve all of these
When should assessment take
place?
• No sudden death
• end point or incrementally?
• when students have finished learning or when
there is still time for improvement?
• when it is convenient to our systems?
• when it is manageable for students? (avoiding
week 7 blues)
• CAA is excellent for incremental assessment
When implementing innovative
assessment we should:
• clarify our aims and objectives
• build on the experiences of others
• brief all stakeholders (students, fellow staff,
external examiners ) well in advance
• provide rehearsal opportunities
What constitutes innovative
assessment?
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new to the individual?
new to the course or programme?
new to the subject or discipline?
new to the institution?
new to the context or level?
Planning strategies to integrate
assessment within learning
• Celebrate individual difference
• explain the process to all stakeholders so it
is open,transparent and sound
• provide meaningful feedback to enhance
performance and reflection
• provide institutions with the data they need
More planning strategies
• Enable articulation with professional bodies
• integrate the ‘fit for purpose’ model of
assessment into curriculum design
• help students maximise individual
achievement
• provide clear,explicit and public assessment
criteria
More strategies
• Make the volume of assessment manageable
for staff and students
• Be demonstrably valid, reliable and
consistent
• Be fair and authentic
• Use the best technology
Contact me for comment or
questions at
[email protected]
The Institute for Learning and
Teaching, Genesis 3,
Innovation Way
Science Park
York YO10 5DQ UK