Category: assessment tools

Some of the opportunities and challenges in using technology to support student assessment in my context with healthcare workers include:

Opportunities
– Using peer assessments to create student engagement with the learning tasks without generating a lot of grading.
– Immediate formative assessments will help encourage active learning strategies and give students the opportunities to practice their skills.
– Guiding the choice of further instructional or learning activities to help increase mastery.
– Using assessments to help reactivate students’ knowledge and skills prior to learning new material.
– Using online media to engage students in their learning through the completion of online quizzes, and electronic submission of informal assignments.
– Technology can help develop customizable instruction for students (rather than going through each module sequentially, learners can decide which aspects to focus on).
– Providing corrective feedback to help students monitor their own progress and develop self-evaluation skills.
– As Kulik et al. (1980) found, a teaching method which places greater emphasis on immediate feedback at each stage of a student’s progress through course units has been demonstrated in many studies to help improve their performance (as cited in Gibbs and Simpson, 2005). Thus, generating specific and immediate feedback throughout a students’ online learning experience will be another important consideration.

Challenges
– Finding the appropriate amount of balance in offering formative assessments online without overwhelming healthcare practitioners.
– Ensuring there are no glitches using the online quizzes.
– Designing useful online assessments that aim to support student learning and are reliable. Gibbs and Simpson (2005) emphasize its importance since researchers found that students were more influenced by assessment than teaching.
– Adequate time to develop formative assessments and help support student learning.
– Limitations of making a one-sized fits all assessment approach. Thus, it will be critical to create relevant assessments that measure a range of abilities from the learning modules.
– Using assessments to motivate students to improve their learning and help them assess their own strengths and weaknesses.
– In the absence of marks/formal grading, Black & Wiliam (1998) found that students read their feedback more carefully (as cited in Gibbs & Simpson, 2005). Thus, developing relevant student feedback will also be a consideration.

References
Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39(7), 3-7. Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm

Chickering, A.W. & Ehrmann, S.C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6. Retrieved from
http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples.htm

Gibbs, G. and Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf

Jenkins, M. (2004). Unfulfilled promise: Formative assessment using computer-aided assessment. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education , 1, 67-80. Retrieved from http://www.glos.ac.uk/shareddata/dms/2B72C8E5BCD42A03907A9E170D68CE25.pdf

The TLT Group. (n.d.).Seven principles: Collection of ideas for teaching and learning with technology. Retrieved from http://www.tltgroup.org/Seven/Library_TOC.htm