Transforming students through peer assessment and authentic practice

This briefing document reports on a seminar where participants were provided with the opportunity to consider how they can provide authentic assessment and involve students as peers and mentors in the assessment process within their own discipline areas. The session explored the potential benefits of these approaches and also addressed the fears and possible drawbacks of such approaches, creating the opportunity to explore these in more detail and discuss solutions and approaches to avoid. The workshop was built around three different experiences of assessment practice in the higher education sector. It used a combination of speed geeking and a world cafe to allow participants to move around the room and listen to a short presentation on each experience and contribute to a related question in a conversational manner. The first experience was based on the use of students to provide feedback to their peers on formative work. The second experience used students from one subject area to help ‘mentor’ students in a different subject area. The final experience used a conference with external delegates to provide an authentic assessment experience for students

Development of a group work assessment pedagogy using constructive alignment theory

The purpose of this paper is to explore group work assessment underpinned by constructive alignment theory to develop a new assessment pedagogy. A review was undertaken of an existing module ‘Mental Health Nursing 1’, with student nurses participating in the BSc (Hons) Nursing Programme. Constructive alignment theory requires teachers to adopt a deep approach to learning where module learning outcomes are aligned with the teaching environment and modes of assessment. As the module progressed, reviewing the Mental Health Nursing 1 module became an excellent opportunity to begin to understand how constructive alignment theory can inform a group work assessment pedagogy. Working using a constructively aligned assessment process became a valuable learning experience for the module leader whilst at the same time revealed a gap in the research around the impact of constructively aligned teaching and group work assessment

Experiential Learning in Industrial/Organizational Psychology: A Case Study

Experiential learning is considered a powerful tool for learning in college. Community-based research is one type of experiential learning that has been used to learn research skills in a variety of social science disciplines. The current case study was conducted as an experiential learning research project. A team of six students and a professor from a small Midwestern college conducted community-based research with a large agribusiness company headquartered near the college. The goal of the project was to create an effective employee-selection process for this firm and to provide an effective learning experience for students. This included development of a situational judgment test, cognitive ability testing, and personality assessment. The article focuses on steps taken to organize a community- based research project, the steps required to develop an effective selection process, and an evaluation of the experience from students, the community partners, and faculty

Blended e-learning skeleton of conversation: improving formative assessment in undergraduate dissertation supervision

The supervision of undergraduate student dissertations is an area in need of research. Although some studies have already addressed this, these are primarily based on academic staff responses. This study contributes to knowledge by gathering the responses of students and focusing on formative electronic assessment. Data was collected using a student focus group and student questionnaire. The findings suggest that good supervisor-student communication is crucial to the supervision process and a number of students felt unhappy with this aspect. It is suggested that to improve the undergraduate student dissertation experience, a combination of face-to-face and electronic formative assessment is used. In addition, the Blended E-learning Skeleton of Conversation model provides a sound theoretical framework that could guide supervisors and students in the supervision process. This model is advocated for use in dissertation module design and in supervisor development

Assessment strategy for virtual teams undertaking the EWB Challenge

[Abstract]: The Engineers without Borders (EWB) Challenge has been incorporated into a core first year course in the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying at University of Southern Queensland. This paper examines an assessment strategy which supports developing a team and problem solving process as well as the final outcome for the team. The assessment strategy aims to encourage teams and individual students to develop practices and strategies which can be used in other projects and problem solving situations as well as producing this one team report in one course. The team and problem solving process is critical as the majority of our teams work as virtual teams having no face to face contact with either other team members or facilitator. Significant emphasis is placed on developing strategies for virtual team work and encouraging individual student learning in line with individual learning goals set with consideration of prior knowledge and experience

General characteristics of anticipated user experience (AUX) with interactive products

Providing a positive user experience (UX) has become the key differentiator for products to win a competition in mature markets. To ensure that a product will support enjoyable experiences for its users, assessment of UX should be conducted early during the design and development process. However, most UX frameworks and evaluation techniques focus on understanding and assessing user’s experience with functional prototypes or existing products. This situation delays UX assessment until the late phases of product development which may result in costly design modifications and less desirable products. A qualitative study was conducted to investigate anticipated user experience (AUX) to address this issue. Twenty pairs of participants were asked to imagine an interactive product, draw their product concept, and anticipate their interactions and experiences with it. The data was analyzed to identify general characteristics of AUX. We found that while positive AUX was mostly related to an imagined/desired product, negative AUX was mainly associated with existing products. It was evident that the pragmatic quality of product was fundamental, and significantly influenced user’s anticipated experiences. Furthermore, the hedonic quality of product received more focus in positive than negative AUX. The results also showed that context, user profile, experiential knowledge, and anticipated emotion could be reflected in AUX. The understanding of AUX will help product designers to better foresee the users’ underlying needs and to focus on the most important aspects of their positive experiences, which in turn facilitates the designers to ensure pleasurable UX from the start of the design process

A dialogical approach to developing professional competence in assessment

Improving the students learning experience is closely connected with the promotion an implementation of an assessment strategy whose effectiveness relies on the quality of the formative aspect. Assessment can promote or hinder learning and it is therefore a powerful force to be reckoned within Education. The literature on assessment makes it quite clear that assessment shapes and drives learning in powerful, though not always helpful, ways (Ramsden, 1997). If we assume that assessment should maximise the opportunities for those assessed to learn and develop, the tendency to reduce assessment purely to a classification device should be counteracted. The demonstration of knowledge should reflect deeper forms of learning rather that regurgitation and parroting of undigested information. Furthermore while traditional forms of assessment such as essays and end of term examinations -which are still predominantly used in higher education in Ireland as the sole assessment methods- may be valid and reliable methods for collecting evidence of acquisition of theoretical knowledge, they rarely afford students the opportunity to apply knowledge to key professional scenarios. Recent studies (Hyatt, 2005; Juwah & al., 2004; Bryan & Clegg; 2006; (Swinthenby, Brown, Glover, Mills, Stevens & Hughes, 2005; Nicol, 2010; Torrance & Prior 2001) have advocated the encouragement of dialogue around learning and assessment as a means to enhance the formative aspect of assessment. Pedagogical dialogue and formative assessment share common principles such as the emphasis on the process (MacDonald, 1991); the need for negotiation of meaning and shared understanding of assessment criteria (Boud, 1992; Chanok 2000; Harrington & Elander, 2003; Harrington & al., 2005; Sambell & McDowell ;1998; Higgins Hatley& Skelton, 2001; Norton, 2004; Price & Rust, 1999; O’Donovan, Price & Rust 2000; Rust, Price & O’Donovan, 2003) and the development of reciprocal commitment between assessors and assesses (Hyland 1998; Taras, 2001). This chapter describes the introduction of an assessment portfolio for module “Curriculum Assessment” informed by the above principles. The key outcomes from the three implementation and evaluation phases of the portfolio suggest that the format adopted promoted a shift of emphasis from assessment product to assessment process, the development of a shared understanding of assessment criteria, the establishment of a mutual relationship between assessors and assesses based on commitment and trust and heightened students and teachers’ self-awareness both in personal (efficacy) and professional (competence) terms. The research also highlights how multiple voices within the reflective evaluation process can contribute significantly to the restructuring and development of the future curriculum and assessment method that closely meets the need of learners