Commonalities across the cases

There were several commonalities across the case studies reported above. The first is that the lecturers demonstrated a deep level of interest and ability in developing their knowledge and skills, both through reflection on what was not working well and their willingness to trial new assessment tasks, or modify existing ones.

The lecturers interviewed were professional and committed. They were articulate when talking about what they do and why, and had a sophisticated understanding of theories relating to knowledge acquisition. Indeed, most of them mentioned their belief in 'constructivist' epistemology, where learners construct and re-construct their own understandings through experience and social interaction. They had critiqued the notion that knowledge is acquired through a 'transmission' model from one with expertise to one without it.

All were enthusiastic about teaching well, but expressed some dissatisfaction with two features of their previous assessment practices - mostly based on essays, with some also using exams. First, they felt that assessment tasks required at the end of a section of work, or the end of semester, were not very helpful for either students or staff in terms of learning. Feedback on summative work is usually not immediately useful for students and common misconceptions can usually not be used in the structure of further learning activities.

The lecturers displayed broad understanding about the multiple roles of assessment - for assessing, for example, students' knowledge and skills related to course content; social skills, information exchange abilities and professional capabilities; strengths and levels of understanding of content as well as areas needing further attention; analytical and interpretive abilities; levels of competence and confidence with various kinds of professional tools and resources (including technology use); and the amount of effort and time spent in engaging with the tasks. While marks were not allocated to such aspects of student performance, lecturers could get a good sense of where their assistance, prompts or guidance were needed during the semester.

It was apparent that lecturers we interviewed were prepared to take risks. This was indicated first by their willingness to work in a relatively high-risk, and sometimes unstable, online environment. Second, they were more concerned about student learning than maintaining the traditional institutional culture, and showed a willingness to move both teaching and assessment practices (and the institution) forward. Such risks, however, were managed proactively. While able to talk about practical difficulties such as organizing online group work, and coping with the time-consuming demands of formative online assessment, for example, they had already planned ways around difficulties experienced to date. They believe teaching and assessment approaches need to take account of the realities of students' lives. So, rather than focusing on students as 'the problem', they focused on the way they designed and delivered learning experiences to students.

One common point across every case of innovative assessment practice we studied was that both lecturers and students viewed assessment as a core element of the teaching and learning experience. This was evident in language use when both staff and students frequently referred to the assessment tasks as 'learning activities' and 'teaching tasks', rather than 'assignments'. Many of the lecturers talked about students being 'deeply engaged' or 'immersed' in these learning tasks over a period of time, and others noted that their tasks were used to develop students' 'professional understandings and skills' through professionally 'authentic', 'pedagogical' 'challenging' tasks. Thus, the assessment tasks were clearly experiential in nature in the sense that they were relevant and grounded in the real world of the students' intended professions.

Staff involved in the cases had a further aspect in common. They were all involved personally in developing extensive online components in their units. This involved collaboration with academic colleagues (within and across their faculties), education designers and multimedia and online developers. They did this because they believed the online environment enabled them to integrate assessment tasks more deeply into the learning experience. The process of working with other people sharpened their pedagogical viewpoints and helped them to shape and crystallize ideas about teaching in more focused ways. For them, the pedagogy was paramount, the technology just a tool. They had developed a strong understanding of the nature of the technology and were able to deal sensibly with its propensity to be unstable at times.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

مركز دار العلم للدراسات العقدية والتاريخية يقدم خدمات متنوعة لزائري الأربعين

متحف الكفيل يعلن عن استقبال أكثر من 130 ألف زائرٍ خلال زيارة الأربعين

فرقة العباس (عليه السلام) تنظم مسيرة عزائية وتحصي خدماتها المقدمة لزائري الأربعين

معتمدة على منظومة عدّ إلكتروني دقيقة العتبة العباسية المقدسة تعلن أعداد الزائرين المشاركين في إحياء زيارة الأربعين

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

9 أسباب شائعة للرؤية الضبابية يجب معرفتها

تتناولها كل يوم.. 10 وجبات شائعة غنية بـ"السكر الخفي"

7 أسباب شائعة لفقدان الشهية لدى كبار السن

7 فواكه قد تسبب قفزة مفاجئة في سكر الدم

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

هل تشغيل تكييف السيارة على "الحد الأقصى" ضار؟

دور المكابح في تحسين كفاءة استهلاك الوقود بالسيارات

بالذكاء الاصطناعي.. باحثون يبتكرون مضادات جديدة لنوعين من العدوى البكتيرية

فيتامين سي والتجاعيد.. طبيب يكشف وقت الاستخدام الصحيح

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Research methodology

Conceptualizing Assessment for Online Delivery: Educational Developers Perspectives

Using Online Environments to Promote Assessment as a Learning Enhancement Process Conclusions

Case 4 Peer assessment

Case 3 Project based assessment

Case 2 Online portfolio and group multimedia project

Results, analysis and discussion Case 1 Online role play

Research methodology

The research context

Literature review Characteristics of good assessment practice

Using Online Environments to Promote Assessment as a Learning Enhancement Process

Utilizing an ICT Tool for Moderating, Marking and Managing Assessment in Large Tertiary Classes Conclusions