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 issues 2 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 3 CAA Conference 2013: themes

Ensuring student engagement Devising richer assessments: forms and design Unpacking feedback Extending staff learning and development 4 Emerging threads

Re-visiting frameworks and principles 5 Author, dateOriginsApproach, tools Boud 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 ( ) 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 6 Students developing as learners Informal feedback Formal feedback Practice, rehearsal Formative and summative Authentic assessment 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 7 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 8 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) 9 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, 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. df df Nicol, D. (n.d) Assessment principles: some possible candidates. 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: 10 References and resources