We have recently had two webinar sessions covering assessment and game based learning presented by Professor Sara de Freitas (Coventry University, UK) on 14 October followed by Dr Nicola Whitton (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) on 27 October. Each presenter offered a fascinating perspective on the use of games in learning, education and assessment that are well worth a second look!
For those that missed these sessions you can catch up via the recordings on the past events page.
Our recent web seminar session on e-marking (e-grading) software presented by Dr Peter Evans provided an insightful and practical demonstration of one such tool. The details of this and some other useful tools that can be for commenting and grading student written work are below.
eMarking Assistant and eRubric (Dr Peter Evans, University of Southern Queensland). Commercial software. http://emarkingassistant.com/ This software is a M.S. Word toolbar that permits document mark-up, marking/summation, customisable comment library, audio comments and marking by rubric. A user community is available at http://www.emarkingassistant.com/community/course/view.php?id=2
RemarksPDF and RemarksXML (Professor Stephen Colbran, The University of New England) Commercial software (note remarksPDF is free to Australian Universities until 2011 and remarksXML is free to Australian Universities until 2013). http://www.remarkspdf.com/ RemarksPDF permits annotation of student submitted PDF files. RemarksXML is a customised M.S. Word tool bar that permits document mark-up, comment libraries, annotation, marking and audio comments.
MarkMyWords (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) Semi-commercial? A time limited trial is available to non-HKUST users. Free to HKUST users only. http://mws.ust.hk/ This is a M.S. Word tool bar to assist with the mark-up, commenting and grading of written student submissions. This is one part of a suite of tools targeted at English as a Second (or foreign) Language learners and teachers.
Computer Aided Feedback and Assessment System (CAFAS) (Dr Denise Wood and Mr Martin Freney, University of South Australia) Creative Commons/Free. http://cafas.pbworks.com/Home http://cafas.pbworks.com/CAFAS-Online http://cafas.pbworks.com/CAFAS-Excel Based on a ‘marking sheet’/rubric concept. It is an online system (permitting home institution logon for Australian Universities) The system can be customised to suit the terminology used in each organisation. Assessments can be organised into courses, semesters and assessment items. Each assessment item can have customised weighted assessment criteria using a mix of sliders, standards based rubrics and auto/custom comment lists. Grades are tallied and fed into a built in grade book. An earlier version of the tool is also available as a downloadable series of M.S. Excel workbooks.
As a follow up to the ‘Augmented Reality in education’ web seminar held on 4 August 2010.
(see http://www.transformingassessment.com/events_4_august_2010.php for a recording of the session).
Please continue the discussion and contribute further links by adding comments to this post!
This is a list of the links provided by participants…
Virtual worlds afford new and sometimes strange ways of interacting with students. We have just set up a model chemistry/bio lab on the Transforming Assessment island in Second Life. There are two new activities at present. The first is a ‘touch to explore’ exercise using the QuizHUD tool and the second involves a ‘talking Beaker’ that if spoken to will ask you questions and provide more information about itself.
Assessing students’ Web 2.0 activities Webinar 26 May 2010
Presenter: Dr Kathleen Gray and Dr Jenny Waycott (University of Melbourne, Australia).
Continue the conversation by using the comments feature!
Issues raised by participants that require further discussion:
the biggest challenge is getting institutional support/infrastructure that will enable innovative ways of learning and assessing /engaging
how to involve students more in assessment marking?
teachers/academics need to make sure it’s an informed decision and not just moving to innovation for the sake – one can get carried away with this and lose sight of the real purpose sometimes
how to assess discussion forums?
so does ‘web 2.0′ make it more likely that learning will align with ‘real’ life?
what (useful) activities are being done in Second Life here? Aside from those assessment tasks which lie outside of the virtual environment?
why would you go to Second Life to do Chemistry?
does Second Life just add a barrier to the activities
aside from Second Life, what other ways can we improve on the social aspect of e-Assessment? e.g. how can we create questions in the VLE that draw upon Web 2.0 (social) examples?
What are capability maps and how can they be used for assessment?
An Australian Learning and Teaching Council project is currently being undertaken which seeks to develop guidelines for the use of web 2.0 technologies when assessing student learning in higher education. This project features a number of live trials involving the use of various social media technologies in student assessment that will culminate in the publication of a set of guidelines to be distributed nationally. A recently published paper arising from case based work in the project identifies challenges for academic assessment that arise from students’ use of Web 2.0 authoring and makes some recommendations for strengthening the educational efficacy of the practice. The paper can be read for free in the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, see http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/gray.html.
The project team include Kathleen Gray, Jenny Waycott and Celia Thompson at The University of Melbourne, Margaret Hamilton and Joan Richardson at RMIT, and Rosemary Clerehan and Judy Sheard at Monash University.
The main project site is located at http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=2146 while recent Blogging about the project can be read at http://web2assessment.blogspot.com/.
Why should you consider using a blog for assessment? The term blog means a web log and is similar to a journal or diary; it is meant to be updated on a regular basis and is intended for general viewing. Blogs record the date and time of entries. Blogs can be used when you would like students to record their reflections and experiences about a particular issue, topic, event or objects that you may have made available. Blogs are more often used when a conversational approach to writing is permissible, rather than a formal approach often associated with extended essays.
This page you are viewing is a blog using the Word Press open source software (http://wordpress.org). Students do not normally require much training in the use of blogs, they are accessed through a web browser and entries are made by typing in text.
You can have students write personal reflections or commentary in a blog and this can be assessed by teachers or tutors. One of the key features of a blog is the ability of other people to comment on a blog entry. This is ideal for peer review and this is another way in which blogs may be used for assessment. Students can references or include web links in their blogs to justify their assertions or reflections.
Blogs can also include video and audio files, in addition to written text. Students could also tag their entries with key words so that it is more convenient to search and collate posts on similar topics.
Support for this fellowship and this website has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in the Fellowship do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
