CAA 2013: Closing address

Dr Erica Morris - Academic Lead (Assessment and Feedback)

• CAA Conference themes

• Emerging threads• Re-visiting

frameworks for assessment practice

• Assessment for learning

• Summarising issues2

Themes and threads

• Evaluation– Costs and benefits, student views, comparison of

systems

• Reporting– Strategies for effective use, innovation in results

handing

• Innovation– Question types, use of technology to underpin

innovation, collaborative assessment

• Assessing skills and enhancing student learning– Higher order skills, pedagogical issues in question

design, effective feedback

• Strategic developments– Department or institutional wide initiatives,

staffing issues

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CAA Conference 2013: themes

• Ensuring student engagement

• Devising richer assessments: forms and design

• Unpacking feedback• Extending staff learning

and development

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Emerging threads

Re-visiting frameworks and principles

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Author, date Origins Approach, toolsBoud and Associates (2010)

Experts in assessment research and academic development, and senior managers.

A proposal for reform, providing seven propositions with three underlying principles.

Gibbs and Simpson (2004-05)

A review of theory, empirical evidence and practical experience on assessment and student learning.

A set of ‘conditions under which assessment supports learning’.

Nicol (n.d) Adaptation of Gibbs and Simpson (2004), and Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006), giving principles that informed the work on the Reengineering Assessment Practices (REAP) project.

Eleven principles of good assessment design – can be used to guide the design of assessment and feedback in higher and further education.

Assessment for learning

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Students developin

g as learners

Informal feedback

Formal feedback

Practice, rehearsal

Formative and

summative

Authentic assessmen

t

Adapted from Sambell, McDowell and Montgomery (2012, p5)

• Holistic model, an overall approach– Authentic assessment – engaging and meaningful tasks– Students developing as learners – effective attributes

and skills to self-assess and evaluate their own learning– Informal feedback – encouraged, used throughout a

programme (e.g. in-class group discussions, peer-review)

– Formal feedback – range of forms of feedback, used at a number of stages

– Practice, rehearsal – opportunities to learn and practice (e.g. using linked assignments)

– Formative and summative – providing an appropriate mix of these two key types of assessments

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Assessment for learning: principles

Sambell, McDowell and Montgomery (2012)

• Developing rationales for technology-enhanced assessment– Questioning about ‘underpinning

theory’

• A broader conception of effective feedback– Considering process in learning– Design and delivery (e.g. audio

feedback)– Implications of e-marking on practice

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Summarising issues

• Staff development, innovation and wider change

‘Imaginative use of digital technologies could be transformational for teaching and learning … The problem is that transformation is more about the human and organisational aspects of teaching and learning than it is about the use of technology’ (Laurillard, 2007, pxvii)

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Summarising issues

Boud, D. and Associates (2010). Assessment 2020: Seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education. Sydney: Australian Learning and Teaching Council.Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2004-5) Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Students’ Learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1, 3-29. Laurillard, D. (2007) Foreward. In H. Beetham and R. Sharpe (Eds), Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. Designing and delivering e-learning. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.Nicol, D. (n.d) Assessment and feedback principles. http://www.reap.ac.uk/Portals/101/Documents/Theory%20and%20Practice/REAP%20principles.pdfNicol, D. (n.d) Assessment principles: some possible candidates. http://www.reap.ac.uk/reap/resourcesPrinciples.html Sambell, K., McDowell, L. and Montgomery, C. (2013) Assessment for Learning in Higher Education. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.The Higher Education Academy (2012) A Marked Improvement: Transforming assessment in higher education. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assessment

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References and resources