Abstract
Presenter: Peter Alston (School of Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK)
Key words: E-assessment; Pedagogy; Higher education, Policy
Teaching and learning in an online environment is rapidly becoming commonplace in an educator's everyday practices (Larreamendy-Joerns & Leinhardt, 2006) and is a feature of many higher education courses (Gikandi, Morrow, & Davis, 2011; Rowley, Lujan, & Dolence, 1998). Norton and Wiburg (2003) describe this shift in delivering teaching, learning and assessment to an online environment as a 'defining technology', in that is causes a fundamental change in how we see ourselves and the world around us. The shift from a traditional 'print' learning environment to one where electronic resources are, almost, expected by the students requires the pedagogy of teaching, learning and assessment to be reconsidered. The socio-cultural implications of this require educators to consider how students who live in an ever changing technological landscape can fully engage in a meaningful learning experience.
One of the biggest challenges in this shift is for educators to re-think their assessment practices, most notably in the ways we might allow students to complete and submit their work. There has been a notable increase in the use of electronic assessment (e-assessment) within higher education (HE), allowing students get instant feedback on learning that they have undertaken, aid performance in terminal assessments and allow them to self- assess (Bax, et al., 2006; Beebe, Vonderwell, & Boboc, 2010; Buckely & Quellmalz, 2013; Gikandi, Morrow, & Davis, 2011; Pitt & Gunn, 2004; Ricketts & Wilks, 2002). A number of studies have also reported on the positive effect of delivering assessment electronically (Buchanan, 2000; Marriott, 2009; Scott, MacLean, Marshall, & Van Asperen, 2008) and there are obvious benefits for students, not least the savings in time and money needed to physically submit a paper-copy of an assignment (Bridge & Appleyard, 2008).
However, whilst there is a plethora of research on policy and practice for traditional face-to-face assessment, there is little empirical research which guides educators on the development of policies concerning e-assessment (Milam, Voorhees, & Bedard-Vorhees, 2004). Many HE institutions often try to account for the implementation of e-assessment within existing, traditional assessment practices, whilst others have attempted to implement specific policies to deal with this challenge. However, there does not appear to be any consensus within the literature on what an e-assessment policy should cover, with many covering a variety of aspects.
This presentation situates some of the challenges faced by academics using e-assessment, by highlighting the issues raised by a group of academics implementing a continuous on-line assessment strategy within the Life Sciences. It then moves onto to discuss the challenges at a broader scale, with the author reporting on some of the early findings from his PhD research into the influential factors in the design and implementation of an electronic assessment policy at a research-led university, and the resulting impact on the student experience.
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