‘Fit for purpose’ assessment: implications of using CAA

1. ‘Fit for purpose’ assessment: implications of using CAA Sally Brown SCROLLA conference February 2002

2. Why might we want to change the assessment methods and approaches we use, overall and what impact is CAA having on our thinking?

3. “Assessment methods and requirements probably have a greater influence on how and what students learn than any other single factor. This influence may well be of greater importance than the impact of teaching materials” (Boud 1988)

4. “Students can avoid bad teaching:they can’t avoid bad assessment.” (Boud 1994)

5. Assessment in any case is becoming more: • diverse • student-centred • focused on evidence • practice-orientated • efficient of staff time • fit-for-purpose • directed nationally towards benchmarks/threshold standards

6. A fit-for-purpose model of assessment: the key questions • Why are we assessing? • What is it we are actually assessing? • How are we assessing? • Who is best placed to assess? • When should we assess?

7. Why are we assessing?Choosing the reasons for assessment; these may include: • Enabling students to get the measure of their achievement • Helping them consolidate their learning • Providing feedback so they can improve and remedy deficiencies • motivating students to engage in the learning • providing them with opportunities to relate theory and practice

8. more purposes... • Helping students make sensible choices about option alternatives and directions for further study • demonstrating student employability • providing assurance of fitness to practice • giving feedback to teachers on effectiveness • providing statistics for internal and external agencies

9. Formative and summative assessment: two ends of a continuum • Formative assessment, primarily concerned with feedback aimed at improvement, often continuous and usually involves words: CAA is extremely useful • Summative assessment is concerned with evaluative judgments , often end point and involves numbers/grades:CAA can be used but needs careful setting up

10. Choosing what we assess: how does CAA fit? • product or process? • theory or practice? • subject knowledge or application? • what we’ve always assessed? • what it’s easy to assess?

11. Good assessment is about description, evaluation and suggestions for remediation.It must be valid and assess what it really claims to assess

12. Exploring diverse approaches Choosing the approaches and methods we use for assessment contribute to a ‘fit-for-purpose’ approach. CAA as much as other approaches needs to do the job well

13. A variety of approaches • Self assessment • peer assessment • group-based assessment • negotiated learning programmes • work-based assessment and • computer-assisted assessment

14. Choosing diverse assessment methods? • essays, unseen written exams, reports • portfolios, projects, vivas, assessed seminars, poster presentations, annotated bibliographies, logs, diaries, reflective journals, critical incident accounts, artefacts, productions, case studies, field studies, exhibitions, critiques, theses…….

15. Alternatives to traditional exams Open-book exams Take-away papers Case studies Simulations Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) Short answer questions In-tray exercises Live assignments • Multiple choice Questions

16. Choosing diverse methods of assessment is valuable because: • all assessment methods disadvantage some students • we can access thereby a wider range of students abilities and skills • assessment can then become an integral purpose of learning • we can learn from the experiences of others

17. Choosing who is best placed to assess • tutor assessment • self-assessment • peer assessment, (either inter or intra peer) • employers,practice tutors and line managers • client assessment CAA can involve all of these

18. When should assessment take place? • No sudden death • end point or incrementally? • when students have finished learning or when there is still time for improvement? • when it is convenient to our systems? • when it is manageable for students? (avoiding week 7 blues) • CAA is excellent for incremental assessment

19. When implementing innovative assessment we should: • clarify our aims and objectives • build on the experiences of others • brief all stakeholders (students, fellow staff, external examiners ) well in advance • provide rehearsal opportunities

20. What constitutes innovative assessment? • new to the individual? • new to the course or programme? • new to the subject or discipline? • new to the institution? • new to the context or level?

21. Planning strategies to integrate assessment within learning • Celebrate individual difference • explain the process to all stakeholders so it is open,transparent and sound • provide meaningful feedback to enhance performance and reflection • provide institutions with the data they need

22. More planning strategies • Enable articulation with professional bodies • integrate the ‘fit for purpose’ model of assessment into curriculum design • help students maximise individual achievement • provide clear,explicit and public assessment criteria

23. More strategies • Make the volume of assessment manageable for staff and students • Be demonstrably valid, reliable and consistent • Be fair and authentic • Use the best technology

24. Contact me for comment or questions atsally.brown@ilt.ac.ukThe Institute for Learning and Teaching, Genesis 3, Innovation WayScience Park York YO10 5DQ UK