UUM 23 July 2020: Transforming assessment for online learning

Transforming Assessment for online learning, 23 July 2020

Lectorial workshop session - Two hours starting 10am Malaysian time (12noon Eastern Australia. 0200 universal time). Hosted by the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).

Dr Mathew Hillier, e-Assessment Academic, Macquarie University, Australia

Session slides: DOWNLOAD HERE!

There is an increasing need to instil and accredit graduates with skills and knowledge fit for the employability and social needs of the 21st century. There is an increasing need to assess higher order knowledge, complex problem solving and the integration of now common software 'e-tools of the trade', yet there is a persistence of relatively archaic practices in education such as pen-on-paper quiz testing. Beyond the COVID-19 induced rapid pivot to online teaching, there is an opportunity to take the next step in re-thinking assessment in higher education. Digital technology can enable assessment designers and teachers to create more authentic, relevant assessments to better meet the needs of 21st century learners. However the realities of resource constraints and differing perspectives means there are often trade-offs made between the competing priorities of authenticity, scalability and integrity of assessments.

Workshop details

This session will explore the choice between migration and transformation for online assessment. We will briefly cover some some theory and also look at some practical examples of innovative assessment that seek to strike an achievable balance in enabling assessment for online learning environments.

Participants will be asked to interact to questions via text chat.

A group based task will conclude the workshop. The audience will be placed into random groups where they will have a choice of two online assessment scenarios,

a) engaging in online group communication around a task OR

b) conducting online interactive oral assessment,

with these to be explored by their group.

Groups will be tasked with:

1) designing an assessment rubric criteria for the task selected above and

2) designing a student engagement activity centred around understanding judgement/rubrics.

Supporting resources will be provided via slides and below.

This session will be conducted live via Zoom with breakout rooms used to manage group work.

Key resources (note the slide download above includes scenario and group task descriptions).

Links resources:

  1. Scenario Option A - further resource on selecting a suitable communicative tool in Moodle http://taw.fi/BWF
  2. Scenario Option B - further resource on conducting an interactive online oral assessment http://taw.fi/IOA
  3. Which Moodle tool for what job? = answered here! https://moodletoolguide.net/en/
  4. More about Rubric design and use http://taw.fi/rubric
  5. A collection of rubrics http://taw.fi/rubricbank