An evidenced-informed approach to enhancing programme-wide

assessment

TESTA to FASTECH

Dr Tansy Jessop & Yaz El Hakim, University of WinchesterProfessor Paul Hyland, Bath Spa University

JISC Online Annual: 22 November 2011

Pre-Conference Activities

Pre-reading:1) Gibbs & Simpson (2004) Conditions under which assessment supports student learning. http://www2.glos.ac.uk/offload/tli/lets/lathe/issue1/articles/simpson.pdf

2) Gibbs, G. & Dunbar-Goddet, H. (2007) The effects of programme assessment environments on student learning. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/teachingandresearch/gibbs_0506.pdf

3) Jessop, T., Smith, C. & El Hakim, Y. (2011) Programme-wide assessment: doing ‘more with less’ from the TESTA NTFS project. HEA Assessment & Feedback Briefing Paper.http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/assessment/2011_Winchester_SS_Briefing_Report.pdf

1) What conditions do you see as most important in student learning (Paper 1)?

2) What is your response to the idea of institutional and programme ‘assessment environments’ which influence assessment and feedback patterns? (Paper 2)

3) What are the main challenges and benefits of addressing assessment patterns on a whole programme? (Paper 3)

Pre-conference questions

TESTA ‘Cathedrals Group’ Universities

Why TESTA has been compelling

1) The research methodology

2) It is conceptually grounded in assessment and feedback literature

3) It’s about improving student learning

4) It is programmatic in focus

5) The change process is dialogic & developmental

Presentation Overview

1) The Research Methodology (Tansy)2) Case study as a compelling narrative (Tansy)3) Trends in assessment & feedback (Tansy)

Q&A4) The student effort narrative (Yaz)5) The bewildered student narrative (Yaz)6) Systems-failure on feedback narrative (Yaz)

Q&A7) A way forward: FASTECH (Paul)

Two Paradigms

Transmission• Expert to novice

• Planned, packaged & ‘delivered’

• Feedback given by experts

• Feedback received by novices

• One way traffic

• Very little dialogue

• Emphasis on measurement

• Competition

Metaphor = mechanical system

Social constructivist model

• Participatory, democratic

• Messy and process-oriented

• Peer review

• Self-evaluation

• Social process

• Dialogue

• Emphasis on learning

• Collaboration

Metaphor = the journey

1) Research Methodology

• triangulates data from three sources

• presented in a case study

• complex, ambiguous, textured

• open to discussion - not the ‘final word’

• ‘before’ and ‘after’ data

Programme Audit

• How much summative assessment

• How much formative (reqd, formal, feedback)

• How many varieties of assessment

• Proportion exams to coursework

• Word count of written feedback

• How much ‘formal’ oral feedback

• Criteria, learning outcomes, course docs

Assessment Experience Questionnaireversion 3.3

• 28 questions

• 5 point Likert scale where 5 = strongly agree

• 9 scales and one overall satisfaction question

• Scales link to conditions of learning

• Examples: – quantity and distribution of effort;

– use of feedback;

– quantity and quality of feedback;

– clear goals and standards

Focus groups

• What kinds of assessment

• How assessment influences your study behaviour

• Whether you know what quality work looks like

• What feedback is like and how you use it

Research Methodology

ASSESSMENTEXPERIENCE

QUESTIONNAIRE(AEQ n= 1200+)

FOCUS GROUPS(n=50 with

301 students)

PROGRAMME AUDIT(n=22)

Programme Team

Meeting

2) The cases are surprising, complex, puzzling

Here is one case from the TESTA data……

Case Study 1

• Lots of coursework (47 tasks)

• Very varied forms (15 types of assessment)

• Very few exams (1 in every 10)

• Masses of written feedback on assignments (15,412 words)

• Learning outcomes and criteria clearly specified

….looks like a ‘model’ assessment environment

But students:

• Don’t put in a lot of effort and distribute their effort across few topics

• Don’t think there is a lot of feedback or that it very useful, and don’t make use of it

• Don’t think it is at all clear what the goals and standards are

……what is going on?

Your best guesses

A. Variety of assessment confuses students

B. Assessment in ‘bunched’ at certain times

C. The feedback is too late to be of any use

D. Teachers don’t share a common standard

E. Other

• Select your response from the buttons (A B C D E) at the bottom-right of the list of participants

• Type any additional comments into the text-chat

• Teachers work hard, students less so.

• Feedback is too late to be useful

• Teachers have varied standards

• Students see feedback as ‘modular’

• Variety confuses students

• Formative tasks are assigned low priority

• Summative assessment drives effort

What is going on?

3) Trends in assessment and feedback

• High summative assessment, low formative

• High variety (average 11; range 7-17)

• Written feedback (ave7,153; r = 2,869-15,412 )

• Low oral feedback (average 6 hours)

• Watertight documents, tacit standards

• Huge institutional and programme variations:

o formative: summative ratios (134:1 cf 1:10)

o oral feedback (37 minutes to 30 hours)

Q&A

4) The effort narrative. TESTA data shows that:

• average of 12 summative per year

• 24 teaching weeks, one every two weeks

• summative tasks end-loaded & bunched

• leading to patchy effort

• and surface learning

• with an average three formative tasks a year….

The more you write the better you become at it… and if we’ve only written 40 pieces over three years that’s not a lot.

So you could have a great time doing nothing until like a month before Christmas and you’d suddenly panic. I prefer steady deadlines, there’s a gradual move forward, rather than bam!

In the second year, I kept getting such good marks I thought “If I’m getting this much without putting in much effort that means I could do so much better if I actually did do the hours” but it just goes up and down really.

TESTA plus HEPI quiz

Which one is false? A) 1 in 3 UK students study for 20 hours or less a weekB) Students on only 1 out of 7 TESTA programmes agreed

that they were working hardC) Students work hardest when there is a high volume of

formative assessment and oral feedbackD) Students work hardest when there is a high volume of

summative assessment and written feedbackE) 1 in 3 UK students undertake > 6 hours of paid work a

weekSelect your response from the buttons (A B C D E) at the bottom-right of the list of participants

Chat box

What ideas might encourage students to put in effort regularly on degree programmes?

• Type your responses in the text chat

Strategies to encourage student effort

Choose your top strategy to encourage effort:

A) Raise expectations in first year

B) Require more formative assessment

C) Link formative and summative tasks

D) Use more peer and self assessment

E) Design small, frequent assessed tasks

Select your response from the buttons (A B C D E) at the bottom-right of the list of participants

Technologies that may help…

What technologies might work to spur on regular and distributed

effort?

Type your responses in the text chat

5) The baffled student narrative

o The language of written criteria is difficult to understand

o feedback does not always refer to criteria

o students feel that marking standards vary and are subjective and arbitrary

o students sometimes use criteria instrumentally

I’m not a marker so I can’t really think like them... I don’t

have any idea of why it got that mark.

They have different criteria, build up their own criteria.

Some of them will mark more interested in how you word

things.

You know who are going to give crap marks and who are

going to give decent marks.

Chat Box

What strategies might help students to internalise goals and standards?

• Type your responses in the text chat

Strategies to help students know what ‘good’ is

Which strategy do you think helps most?

A) Showing students models of good work

B) Peer marking workshops

C) Lots of formative tasks with feedback

D) Plenty of interactive dialogue about standards

E) Self assessment activities

Select your response from the buttons (A B C D E) at the bottom-right of the list of participants

6) System-wide features make it difficult for students to use feedback and act on it

o feedback often arrives after a module, or after submission of the next task

o tasks are not sequenced or connected across modules, leading to lack of feed forward

o students sometimes receive grades electronically before their feedback becomes available on parchment in a dusty office

o technology has led to some depersonalised cut and pasting

It’s rare that you’ll get it in time to help you on that same module.

t’s rare that you’ll get it in time to help you on that same module.You know that twenty other people have got the same sort of comment.

I look on the Internet and say ‘Right, that’s my mark. I don’t need

to know too much about why I got it’.

I only apply feedback to that module because I have this fear

that if I transfer it to other modules it’s not going to transfer

smoothly.

You can’t carry forward most of the comments because you

might have an essay first and your next assignment might be a

poster.

Changes through TESTA

Structural

Thematic

Pedagogic

Module

Types of changes

1. Reduced summative

2. Increased formative assessment

3. Streamlined variety

4. Raised expectations of student workload

5. Sequenced and linked tasks across modules

6. Practice based changes

www.testa.ac.uk

Q&A

FASTECHFeedback and Assessment for Students with Technology

What is FASTECH?

• R&D Project (3 yrs): ‘R’ primarily with TESTA tools; ‘D’ in disciplines and universities.• approach: teaching teams with students interpret ‘R’ data to determine goals of ‘D’. • activities: to address QA and QE issues, optimize sector engagement (fastech.ac.uk) • outputs: R&D findings, experiences & guides by teachers, students, others…

Pragmatic Principles?

• Fast: using readily-available technologies; quick to learn, easy to use …• Efficient: after start-up period; saves time & effort ( paper), productivity … • Effective: brings significant learning benefit to students, pedagogic impact …

FASTECH: a Pedagogical Goal

Student

baggage …

• all can be strategic!

and blocks:

• ideas about roles of S & T

• …

… ability to manage own learning …In each assessment culture, this entails using technologies that help promote

transparency & S participation in all processes from design and management to feedback and revision(validity, reliability & fairness are not enough)

a reshaping of teacher & student responsibilities

processes that enhance and create new: peer-learning activities & collaborations (in/out of class); self & peer assessment; recording, sharing & review of students’ progress and achievements …

teacher revision of pedagogies, based upon records of student progress & achievement in learning

attuning of assessment to address individual & distinctive needs & aspirations …..

Teacherbaggage …

and blocks:• ideas about role

of assessment• unsure about

value of feedback• assessment &

marking conflated• criteria &

standards• …

Finally, for an excellent overview

of technologies and pedagogies

JISC, Effective Assessment in a Digital Age. Bristol: HEFCE, 2010.Available at: www.jisc.ac.uk/digiassess (esp., pp. 14-15, 54-55)For resources associated with this publication:www.jisc.ac.uk/assessresource

Please contact us for more info about TESTA and FASTECH:Tansy.Jessop@winchester.ac.ukYassein.El-Hakim@winchester.ac.ukp.hyland@bathspa.ac.uk

Websites: www.testa.ac.uk & www.fastech.ac.uk (from January 2012)

Thank You

DISCUSSIONto be continued in the conference discussion forum

How do you think using technology in A&F will improve students’ learning?

References

Black, P. & D. William (1998) ‘Assessment and Classroom Learning’, Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice. 5(1): 7-74.

Bloxham, S. & P. Boyd (2007) Planning a programme assessment strategy. Chapter 11 (157-175) in Developing Effective Assessment in Higher Education. Berkshire. Open University Press.

Boud, D. (2000) Sustainable Assessment: Rethinking assessment for the learning society, Studies in Continuing Education, 22: 2, 151 — 167.

Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2004) Conditions under which assessment supports students' learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. 1(1): 3-31.

Gibbs, G., & Dunbar-Goddet, H. (2007) The effects of programme assessment environments on student learning. Higher Education Academy. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/ourwork/research/gibbs_0506.pdf

Gibbs, G. & Dunbar-Goddet, H. (2009). Characterising programme-level assessment environments that support learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 34,4: 481-489.

Jessop, T., El Hakim, Y. & Gibbs, G. (2011) TESTA: Research inspiring change, Educational Developments 12 (4). In press.

Jessop, T., McNab, N., and Gubby, L. (2012 forthcoming) Mind the gap: An analysis of how quality assurance procedures influence programme assessment patterns. Active Learning in Higher Education. 13(3).

Knight, P.T. and Yorke, M. (2003) Assessment, Learning and Employability. Maidenhead. Open University Press.

Nicol, D. J. and McFarlane-Dick, D. (2006) Formative Assessment and Self-Regulated Learning: A Model and Seven Principles of Good Feedback Practice. Studies in Higher Education. 31(2): 199-218.

Nicol, D. (2010) From monologue to dialogue: improving written feedback processes in mass higher education, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35: 5, 501 – 517

Sambell, K (2011) Rethinking Feedback in Higher Education. Higher Education Academy Escalate Subject Centre Publication.