Margot McNeill reports on a recent  ALTC-funded invited forum on assessment held at UTS on Friday 5 June, Changing assessment to focus on learning – implications for universities.

Professor Dai Hounsell – Assessment futures and high quality learning

Professor Hounsell began by presenting the opportunities that universities have in moving towards diversification of assessment, primarily:

• Assessment for learning and versatility – rather then simply repeating the same writing requirements, assessment can support students to develop proficiency in a range of genres for presenting their work. Examples were cited from the medical field, including reporting on drug trials, diagnostic or screening tests, summaries of other papers, guidelines, economic analyses or qualitative research.
• Assessment for learning and inclusivity – assessment should be designed to test a wide range of intended learning outcomes, enabling diversity of practice between and within subjects, requiring students to demonstrate their capacities and achievements
• Assessment for learning and high-value feedback – emerging ways of enhancing feedback were described, including online self testing, emailed, augmented feedback, cumulative, stepped feedback, feedback for developing self-regulation, exemplars and collaborative assignments, practice assessments, student involvement in assessment and feedback.

The address concluded with a list of strategies for enhancing assessment practices:

• Working from an informed picture of assessment practice and set of criteria against which to judge practice
• Supporting a variety of diagnoses and remedies
• Building good practice examples
• Sharing evolving practices
• Monitoring progress and improving feedback
• Review of enhancements practice

Professor David Boud – The new assessment agenda: equipping students for the challenges of learning.

This presentation began by outlining the different notions of what assessment means and the complexity involved in the ‘often messy compromise between incompatible ends’; certifying achievement and aiding learning.

Professor Boud described the current agenda of university assessment as having progressed in recent decades, but still needing to move towards assessment for longer term learning. The key features of this kind of assessment were:

1. Sustainability – looking beyond the immediate content, avoiding creating dependencies and focusing on higher order knowledge and skills in context;
2. Develops informed judgment – encouraging students to be able to make judgments about their own learning, by building their capacity for self-assessment throughout programs;
3. Constructs reflexive learners – involving students in assessment, encouraging pro-activity and self-regulation;
4. Forms the beginning practitioner – giving students to skills to develop confidence to manage their own learning, work effectively with others and communities of learners.

Check out Boud’s slides from an earlier presentation, and the Assessment Futures site.

Filed under: Assessment and Marking, Conferences and Workshops by Agnes Bosanquet