Teaching with Technology -

Assessment for Learning

Institute of Technology Carlow, TEL week 2016

#irishdigitalchampions

Sharon Flynn

Assistant Director, Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

National University of Ireland, Galway

Email: sharon.flynn@nuigalway.ie

Twitter: @sharonlflynn

learntechgalway.blogspot.com

Why assess learners?

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Eleaf: http://flickr.com/photos/eleaf/2536358399/

Assessment for learning

Assessment for learning is formative and diagnostic. It provides

information about student achievement which allows teaching

and learning activities to be changed in response to the needs

of the learner and recognises the huge benefit that feedback

can have on learning.

Assessment as learning sees student involvement in assessment,

using feedback, participating in peer assessment, and self-

monitoring of progress as moments of learning in themselves.

(Bloxham & Boyd, 2012)

Principles of Assessment

• Validity

• Reliability

• Effectiveness

• Comparability/consistency

• Transparency

• Practicability

• Equity

• Attribution

(Bloxham & Boyd 2007)

Guide no 2 - Balancing assessment of and assessment for learning (2007)

Types of assessment

Written work

VLE offers support to

give feedback to students

Using Rubrics

Using Rubrics

Using Rubrics (GradeMark)

#irishdigitalchampions

Andrew Flaus - Biochemistry

Opportunities for

• feedback

• transparency

• consistency

Phase 1: Using tagged comments to give feedback

Phase 2: Using rubrics for final grading

#irishdigitalchampions

Irina Ruppo Malone - AWC

Reading,

writing,

editing,

rating

#irishdigitalchampions

Dympna Casey – Nursing & Midwifery

Benefits of peer assessment (Sue Bloxham)

Evidence shows students find their peers a useful and more

approachable source of help with assignments but we need to stress

the main value in peer assessment is standing in the shoes of the

assessor – not being assessed – because:

learning about standards – absolutely crucial to making

progress and understanding feedback

Seeing other ways of going about the task – develops strategies

for taking action

Key employability skill – being able to judge own performance

and assessing and giving feedback to others

More opportunity for dialogue

Chance for more, rich, formative feedback

#irishdigitalchampions

John Morrissey – Geography

“One of the great practical roles podcasting can play is in efficiently

providing effective ‘student feedback’, particularly covering

generic assignment shortcomings of content, style and presentation”

Teacher friendly formative feedback on written

work (Sue Bloxham)

• Teacher posts good examples of completed tasks on VLE

• Students peer assess tasks using assessment criteria

• Teachers give feedback on work in class

• Teachers put main effort into marking drafts (agreed with

examiner), just checking for change and putting mark on final

piece

• Tasks are done on-line (MCQs), auto marked giving

immediate feedback

MCQs

• Can be used for self-testing or continuous assessment.

•Automated marking and feedback

• Effort is in devising good questions!

#irishdigitalchampions

Su-Ming Khoo – Political Sci & Sociology

Development & Change – 250 students

10 question sets, 10+ questions

Highly randomized

Eugene Hickland – School of Business

Organisational Behaviour – 360 students

2 x 40 minute mid-semester exam, 24 hour window

Outcome – increased atttendance!

PRS/Clickers

#irishdigitalchampions

Mark Lang & Gary Gillanders – Physics

In September 2010, 762 clicker devices were distributed to incoming

first year undergraduate Science students and Foundation Medicine

students at NUIG.

Social Media – blogs and wikis

#irishdigitalchampions

Doris Devilly – German

#irishdigitalchampions

Louise Alcock – Zoology

Wikipedia

“Lecturers should be encouraging their classes to edit and

improve Wikipedia pages. At the very least, more academics

should become Wikipedia editors – writing on their areas of

expertise.”

– Neil Selwyn, professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University

Students as producers

#irishdigitalchampions

Vincent O’Connell – German

“As regards the learning experience of podcasting, one mature

student remarked that it was essential in terms of hearing the correct

pronunciation and in trying to work on it oneself. Another student

remarked that it made him more aware of the importance of

speaking a language correctly.”

Podcasting in second language learning

#irishdigitalchampions

Anne Wiseman – GMIT

#irishdigitalchampions

John Murray – Earth & Ocean Science

History of Life – channel on YouTube

Conclusions

• Focus on the pedagogy, let the technology support

• We need to celebrate our digital champions

• We need to document, share and learn from their experiences

Thank you for listening. Questions?

References

Bloxham, S & Boyd, P (2007) Developing assessment in Higher Education: a practical guide,

Maidenhead, Open University Press

Hounsell, D., Xu, R., & Tai, C. (2007) Guide no 2 - Balancing assessment of and assessment for

learning, Integrative Assessment Enhancement Theme,

http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/pages/docdetail/docs/publications/guide-no-2---balancing-

assessment-of-and-assessment-for-learning

Morrissey, J. (2012) Podcast Steering of Independent Learning in Higher Education. AISHE-J, 4

(1):1-12.

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2012)Understanding assessment: its role

in safeguarding academic standards and quality in higher education

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/understanding-assessment.pdf

Thomas, L. (2012) What Works? Building student engagement and belonging in higher

education at a time of change. https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resource/building-student-

engagement-and-belonging-higher-education-time-change-summary-findings-and

On learntechgalway.blogspot.com

The clicker experience at NUIG: student feedback

http://learntechgalway.blogspot.ie/2012/02/clicker-experience-at-nuig-student.html

The clicker experience at NUIG: Issues and concerns for staff

http://learntechgalway.blogspot.ie/2012/02/clicker-experience-at-nuig-issues-and.html

Flipping great! (On flipped classroom)

http://learntechgalway.blogspot.ie/2015/12/flipping-great.html

A lecturer perspective on peer assessment

http://learntechgalway.blogspot.ie/2015/11/a-lecturer-perspective-on-peer.html

Academic writing and wikipedia

http://learntechgalway.blogspot.ie/2015/02/academic-writing-and-wikipedia.html