Using assessment for student learning

1

• Using assessment for student learning
• Session 6

2
Session Plan

•  Analyse how changing assessment can dramatically
  change learning
• Identify the principles underpinning these
  improvements

3

• review assessment in your own course in relation
  to a set of 11 Conditions under which assessment
  supports student learning identified in a UK
  research study (Gibbs 2005)
• Plan how you might change to your current
  assessment to improve students learning

4
The student perspective

• Review the role of assessment in the model of
  student learning
• Consider data drawn from various research
  studies How do students experience and react to
  assessment?

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The role of assessment in student learning
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How do students experience and react to
assessment?

• I just dont bother doing the homework now. I
  approach the courses so I can get an A in the
  easiest manner, and its amazing how little work
  you have to do if you really dont like the
  course.
• (Snyder 1971 p50 quoted in Gibbs 2005)

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• From the beginning I found the whole thing to be
  a kind of exercise in time budgeting.You had to
  filter out what was really important in each
  course you couldnt physically do it all. I
  found out that if you did a good job of filtering
  out what was important you could do well enough
  to do well in every course.
• (Snyder 1971 p62-63 quoted in Gibbs 2005)

8

• I am positive there is an examination game. You
  dont learn certain facts, for instance, you
  dont take the whole course, you go and look at
  the examination papers and you say looks as
  though there have been four questions on a
  certain theme this year, last year the professor
  said that the examination would be much the same
  as before, so you excise a good bit of the
  course immediately
• (Miller Parlett 1974 p60)

9

• The feedback on my assignments comes back so
  slowly that we are already on the topic after
  next and Ive already submitted the next
  assignment. Its water under the bridge, really.
  I just look at the mark and bin it
• (Gibbs 2005)

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• One course I tried to understand the material
  and failed the exam. When I took the re-sit I
  just concentrated on passing and got 98. My
  tutor couldnt understand how I failed the first
  time. I still dont understand the subject so it
  defeated the object, in a way
• (Gibbs 2005)

11

• We were told this course was going to be an
  opportunity to be creative, to take risks. Then
  in week five we were hit with a multiple choice
  question test and we realised what it was really
  all about.
• (Gibbs 2005)

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Cases of dramatic impact of changes in assessment

• How are students reacting to assessment in the
  following situations?

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The case of the engineer

• Weekly lectures, problem sheets and classes
• Student numbers gt170
• Marking impossible
• Problem classes large enough to hide in
• Students stopped doing problems
• Exam marks dropped from 55 to 45
• (Gibbs 2005)

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The case of the engineer

• Course requirement to complete 50 problems
• Peer assessed in six lecture slots
• Marks do not count
• Lectures, problems, classes, exams unchanged
• (Gibbs 2005)

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The case of the engineer

• Course requirement to complete 50 problems
• Peer assessed in six lecture slots
• Marks do not count
• Lectures, problems, classes, exams unchanged
• Exam marks increased from 45 to 85
• Why did it work?
• (Gibbs 2005)

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The case of the engineer

• time on task
• social learning and peer pressure
• timely and influential feedback
• learning by assessing
• error spotting
• developing judgement
• self-supervision
• (Gibbs 2005)

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Self assessment

• The case of the Historian
• The case of the Pharmacist
• The case of the Psychologist
• Self assessment to develop learners, not for marks

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The Case of the Accountant

• Large class
• Textbook
• Assignments (un-assessed)
• Exam
• Exam marks 46
• Only 4 students above 70
• (Gibbs 2005)

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The Case of the Accountant

• learning teams of 4
• sat exams individually
• assigned average mark of team of 4
• if fail, team support revision for re-sit
• (Gibbs 2005)

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The Case of the Accountant

• learning teams of 4
• sat exams individually
• assigned average mark of team of 4
• if fail, team support revision for re-sit
• Exam marks up from 46 to 60
• Students over 70 up from 4 to 30
• (Gibbs 2005)

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• Conditions under which assessment supports
  student learning
• Gibbs and Simpson (2004)

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Quantity and distribution of student effort

• 1 Assessed tasks capture sufficient student time
  and effort

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Quantity and distribution of student effort

• 1 Assessed tasks capture sufficient student time
  and effort
• 2 These tasks distribute student effort evenly
  across topics and weeks

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Quality and level of student effort

• 3 These tasks engage students in productive
  learning activity

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Quality and level of student effort

• 3 These tasks engage students in productive
  learning activity
• 4 Assessment communicates clear and high
  expectations to students

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Quantity and timing of feedback

• 5 Sufficient feedback is provided, both often
  enough and in enough detail

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Quantity and timing of feedback

• 5 Sufficient feedback is provided, both often
  enough and in enough detail
• 6 The feedback is provided quickly enough to be
  useful to students

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Quality of feedback

• 7 Feedback focuses on learning rather than on
  marks or students themselves

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Quality of feedback

• 7 Feedback focuses on learning rather than on
  marks or students themselves
• 8 Feedback is linked to the purpose of the
  assignment and to criteria

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Quality of feedback

• 7 Feedback focuses on learning rather than on
  marks or students themselves
• 8 Feedback is linked to the purpose of the
  assignment and to criteria
• 9 Feedback is understandable to students, given
  their sophistication

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Student response to feedback

• 10 Feedback is received by students and
  attended to

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Student response to feedback

• 10 Feedback is received by students and
  attended to
• 11 Feedback is acted upon by students to improve
  their work or their learning

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Learning Task

• review assessment practice on a course of your
  own in relation to these 11 Conditions under
  which assessment supports student learning

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Complete the Assessment Experience Questionnaire

• as if you were an average student on one of
  your courses
• then score it

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Diagnosis of assessment

• Using the checklist to summarise your AEQ scores,
  identify the extent to which assessment on your
  course meets the 11 Conditions and supports
  your students learning
• Discuss in pairs What conditions did you find
  that supported student learning?

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Assessment tactics that meet these conditions

• What new strategies might you try to improve the
  assessment conditions?
• Activity in threes, take turns to help each
  other to identify some new strategies

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Review

• What new strategies did you come up with?
• What challenges couldnt you resolve?

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More information?

• FAST project
• http//www.open.ac.uk/science/fdtl/