e is for exploration: Assessing hard‐to‐measure learning outcomes

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the use of e-technologies to enable higher education to better assess aspects of learning that have proved difficult to assess using more conventional means. Higher education describes the knowledge and abilities it intends its graduates to have acquired before graduation, and it has a wide range of approaches to assess these. Higher education also seeks affective outcomes in the form of values, attitudes, behaviours and related attributes or dispositions, and these have consistently proved more difficult to assess by examination or assignment. After graduation, however, graduates are often assessed within the professions via portfolios, interview and peer or expert review. Assessment may focus on teamwork and networking skills, productivity, creativity and values fit to the profession. How can e-technologies help with these forms of assessment? This paper reviews some of the e-based approaches and explorations that have supported or could support assessment of affective attributes. At each stage, the paper seeks to establish the common elements of assessment in the different regimes and how e-assessment contributes, or may contribute in the future. The paper concludes that many of the strengths of e-assessment lend themselves to an evaluation paradigm rather than to conventional assessment for intended learning outcomes.

The role of virtual learning environments in a primary school context: An analysis of inscription of assessment practices

“…Several studies into e‐assessment conclude that there is an urgent need for clarification of the role of technology in assessment (Shephard, 2009; Whitelock, 2009). Nicol and Macfarlane‐Dick (2006) have proposed seven principles for technology‐supported assessment practices that might indicate the first step towards a greater understanding of e‐assessment.…”

“…A deeper insight into the potential of e-assessment for supporting new educational skills, in particular the pedagogical implications of widely implemented and accepted systems like VLEs, and how these influence the development of such skills, is crucial. Several studies into e-assessment conclude that there is an urgent need for clarification of the role of technology in assessment (Shephard, 2009;Whitelock, 2009). Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) have proposed seven principles for technology-supported assessment practices that might indicate the first step towards a greater understanding of e-assessment.…”

Sustainability and Ethics: Graduate Dispositions in Business Education

“…These include many of the approaches that we used in the project and workshop that we have described in previous sections: discussion and debate, group work, problem-based learning, analysis of case studies, peer evaluation, and self-reflection. Shephard (2009) has also investigated methods for assessing the outcomes of such learning, methods that could make a contribution to graduate dispositions of sustainability and ethics. Our project also addressed this point, developing rubrics for assessing students' levels of these dispositions (Wood, Thomas, & Rigby, in this Issue).…”

Fit for purpose: traditional assessment is failing undergraduates with learning difficulties. Might eAssessment help?

“…ePortfolios are entering mainstream use in higher education and their educational value is well documented (Stefani, Mason, and Pegler 2007;JISC 2008). Outside formal education, there is evidence of a growing use of ePortfolios to supplement criterion-referenced assessments of the collaborative skills, creativity and productivity of graduate employees in the professions, where constructive evaluation rather than assessment against intended learning outcomes is the preferred paradigm (Shephard 2009). Similarly, Cotterill, Bradley, and Hammond (2006) report the use of ePortfolios in complex work environments and Scott (2005) notes that rather than just offering a replacement for traditional methods the potential of ePortfolios extends beyond the assessment of subject content into a wider evaluation of the aptitudes and skills expected of modern graduates.…”