Transforming Assessment in a Digital Era Technology context, next generations students, interactions, learning-oriented assessment, new mindsets The digital futures learning environment provides opportunities to improve the student learning experience through flexibility in time, pace, place, mode of study, teaching approach and forms of assessment. • Assessment for a digital future needs to place learning at the centre of assessment and reconfigure assessment design so that the learning function is emphasized • Learning-oriented assessment needs to include: assessment tasks as learning tasks, student involvement in the assessment processes and forward-looking feedback. • Formative assessment in a digital future incorporates feedback as feed-forward so that students receive feedback that can be acted on to improve learning.

1. Designing Learning-oriented
Assessment for a Digital
Future
Transforming Assessment in a Digital Era
31st July - 1st August 2013
Professor Mike Keppell
Executive Director
Australian Digital Futures Institute
Director, Digital Futures - CRN
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2. Overview
n Trends and challenges
n New generation students
n Interactions
n Learning-oriented
assessment
n Personalised learning
n Challenges
n New mindsets
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3. What Trends do we Need
to Consider?
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4. Beyond Current Horizons
n Networking and
connections - distributed
cognition
n Increasing
personalisation and
customisation of
experience
n New forms of literacy
n Openness of ownership of
knowledge (Jewitt, 2009).
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5. Horizon Report
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6. Trends
‣ People expect to be able to work, learn, and
study whenever and wherever they want.
‣ The abundance of resources and
relationships will challenge our educational
identity.
‣ Students want to use their own technology
for learning.
‣ Personalisation - learning, teaching, place
of learning and technologies
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7. New Generation Students
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8. Student-
generated
content (learner-
as-designers)
Connected
students (knowledge
is in the network)
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9. Owning the Place of Learning
rapport
with
technology
mobile
generate
content
personalise
connected
adapt
space to
their needs
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10. Interactions
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11. 25
Interactive learning (learner-to-content)
Networked learning (learner-to-learner;
learner-to-teacher)
Student-generated content (learner-as-
designers).
Connected students (knowledge is in the
network)
Learning-oriented assessment
(assessment-as-learning)
Interactions
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12. Learning-oriented
Assessment
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13. Assessment 2020
Assessment has been most
effective when:
n feedback is used to actively
improve student learning
n students and teachers become
responsible partners in learning
and assessment
n assessment for learning is
placed at the centre of subject
and program design
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14. Learning-oriented Assessment
Assessment
tasks as learning
tasks
Student
involvement in
assessment
processes
Forward-looking
feedback
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15. nAssessment tasks determine
student effort
nStudents also fulfil the
measurement requirement of
the subject/curriculum.
nTasks should require distribution
of student time and effort
(Gibbs & Simpson, 2004)
Assessment Tasks as
Learning Tasks
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16. Student Involvement in
Assessment
nStudents begin to learn about assessment
nStudents begin to determine the quality of
their own work
nStudents learn about reflection, peer
feedback and self-evaluation
nSome degree of student choice in
assessment tasks.
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17. Forward-looking Feedback
nStudents need to receive appropriate feedback
which they can use to ‘feed forward’ into
future work.
nFeedback should be less final and judgemental
(Boud, 1995)
nFeedback should be more interactive and
forward-looking (Carless, 2002)
nFeedback should be timely and with a potential
to be acted upon (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004)
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19. Personalised Learning
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20. Personal Learning Spaces
‣ Integrate formal and informal learning
spaces
‣ Customised by the individual to suit their
needs
‣ Allow individuals to create their own
identities.
‣ Recognises ongoing learning and the need
for tools to support life-long and life-wide
learning.
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21. Connectivism
‣ Knowledge has changed to networks and
ecologies (Siemens, 2006).
‣ Need improved lines of communication in
networks.
‣ “Connectivism is the assertion that learning is
primarily a network-forming process” (p.
15).
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22. 22Thursday, 1 August 13

23. ePortfolios in Assessment
nEmbedding an
ePortfolio into the
Bachelor of Education
(Early Childhood and
Primary)
nIteratively designed
throughout the four
years (Munday, 2010).
23
!
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24. Types and Purposes of
ePortfolios
n Assessment - formative and summative, learning-
oriented, feed-forward
n Showcase ‘best’ work to peers, teachers, potential
employers
n Development over time to show changes in
thinking.
n Reflective - personal and professional, critical/
analytical as opposed to descriptive (Stefani,
Mason & Pegler, 2007)
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25. Embedding of
ePortfolios
nDifferent purposes of ePortfolios
throughout degree.
n1st year - development/showcase/
assessment
n2nd year - reflection/assessment
n3rd year - development - self-directed
n4th year - showcase and leadership
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26. Characteristics of the
Assessment Task
n Alignment of learning outcomes, content and
assessment
n Distribution of student time and effort throughout
degree program
n Degree of student choice in assessment task
n Relationship between assessment task and real-
world task
n Portfolio could be utilised for different purposes
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27. Challenges
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28. Digital Literacies
n Literacy is no longer “the ability
to read and write” but now “the
ability to understand
information however
presented.”
n Can't assume students have
skills to interact in a digital age
n Literacies will allow us to teach
more effectively in a digital
age (JISC, 2012)
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30. Accountability and Trust
nAccountability of
assessment practices is
common due to the need
for standards
nPlagiarism and a lack of
trust may influence the
types of assessment
undertaken
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31. Group Projects
nEquitable contribution
nPeer assessment of other
students may send mixed
signals
nPeer learning and peer
assessment are about
students providing
feedback to each other
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32. New Mindsets
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33. New Mindsets
n Privileging mobile learning and
teaching access
n Embedding digital literacies into
all aspects of learning, teaching
and curriculum
n Privileging diverse places of
learning as opposed to a
singular place of learning
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34. New Mindsets
n Assisting teachers and students
to develop their own
personalised learning strategy
n Privileging user-generated
content
n Privileging learning-oriented
assessment
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35. 35
Questions?
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