Future-directed assessment: Learning that lasts

Jeremy B Williamswww.jeremybwilliams.net

Chief Academic OfficerKnowledge Universe

Stamford Plaza Hotel, Brisbane3 May 2012

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Overview

1. The Five Minute University2. The case for authentic assessment3. Open-book, open-Web examinations4. A sample OBOW exam5. How to construct an OBOW exam6. Summary and conclusions

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1. The Five Minute University

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2. The case for authentic assessment

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"Life is an open book exam."

• Learners need to be convinced of the authenticity of the task if they are to fully engage

Professor Alan Blinder

Princeton University

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• “... Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively.”

Authentic assessment defined

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Learning design for understanding

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• multiple-choice tests• fill-in-the-blanks• true-false• matching words• … Students are passive

learners surface learning

Authentic assessment is not:

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Does this resemble any real world setting?

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SPOT THE COMPUTER?

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Sound familiar?

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Assessment of learning

Content

Assessment

Learning outcomes

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Assessment for learning

Learning outcomes

Assessment

Content

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Closed book, invigilated exams are more likely to foster cramming/ data dumping than deep learning

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3. Open-book, open-Web (OBOW) exams

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In brief …

• A semi-structured ‘mini-case (or ‘caselette’)

• Harnesses the power of ICTs to emphasise currency and real world authenticity

• A summative assessment item …… invites the student to draw on all that they have learnt (determining what is relevant).

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Dull? Boring? Something to fear?

• Final assessment a celebration of learning!

• Boredom and stress not conducive to deep learning

• Important to catch the imagination and appeal to the creativity of the learner

• Student satisfaction is influenced by positive perceptions toward technology and an autonomous learning mode

(Drennan, Kennedy & Pisarski 2005)

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Key features

• Students play the role of decision-maker, auditor, consultant or advisor

• They are presented with a unstructured (open-ended) problem that requires resolution (usually in the form of a set of recommendations)

• No pre-exam night 'cramming'

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The template

• THE CONTEXT: the setting in which the problem/situation is identified and framed

• THE TASK: the project and issues to resolve

• THE GUIDE TO THE TASK: the setting of parameters and suggestions about methods/concepts/models/tools to employ.

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The ground rules• To minimise the scope for unethical behaviour …

1) Time period for the exam must be sufficiently tight

2) Make clear (as a stated objective of the subject) that demonstrable application of learning is the key to success

3) 'Text-book' impersonal responses will not attract high grades.

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4. A sample OBOW exam

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You have to have invigilated exams or students will cheat

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1) Students cheat during invigilated exams

2) In the adult learner context, only a small percentage will attempt to cheat

3) These people will cheat whatever the exam instrument

Seldom observed points

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5. How to construct an OBOW exam

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Getting started

• Keep a look out for material all the time (not exam time!)

• e.g. Local newspaper, periodical websites, magazines, television news or current affairs programmes

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What to look for

• A story that learners can easily relate to in lay terms

• Objective: to get them to think deeply about an issue

• Student to act as ‘expert witness’ – an

effective mechanism for the validation of their learning in their own minds

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Creating a scenario

• Having settled on a theme, gather together various media that can bring the case to life

• The inclusion of hyperlinks, photographs and/or streaming media adds a human dimension authenticity

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Lead characters • No story is complete without lead

characters

• Using real people with names, and pictures and voices acts as a catalyst to student engagement

• Fictional characters must give the appearance of being real!

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Setting THE TASK

• Role play the bridge between a learner's education and their professional practice

• Placing the learner in the role of the key decision maker, the expert advisor, or the auditor serves to validate the student’s learning

• Revisit the stated learning outcomes … what skills should they have?

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Defining the parameters

• The definition of the assessment task might amount to no more than a paragraph

• Ideally it should invite a wide of variety of 'equally correct' answers

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Striking a balance

• Avoid 'spoon-feeding' but …

• … not so unstructured a student is either struck by 'writers block' or goes off in the wrong direction.

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Expectations• Before writing THE GUIDE TO THE TASK,

it is helpful to develop an outline of the kind of response one expects from the learner and, importantly, …

… how this aligns with the prescribed learning outcomes

• This process may also lead to THE TASK being refined

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6. Summary and conclusions

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OBOW exams …

• A form of assessment that fosters understanding of learning processes in terms of real-life performance … as opposed to a display of inert knowledge

• Test problem-solving skills not memory

• Equips learners with 21st Century skills

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What OBOW exams deliver…

• An assessment instrument that is more relevant to goals of the curriculum, greater authenticity, where real-world problems take centre-stage

• Allow ICTs to be harnessed to encourage interaction

• Student engagement with the assessment task induces deeper learning

• Low cost solution for exam delivery in open and distance learning

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• Studies show stimulation with audio will increase retention rate by 20%. If stimulated with audiovisual, memory retention climbs to 30%. If presented with interactive multimedia involvement, the retention rate can be as high as 60%.

-- Tay Vaughan from Multimedia: Making it Work, 5th edition, 2001

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References• Williams, Jeremy B. (2009)

The efficacy of the final examination: a comparative study of closed-book, invigilated exams and open-book, open-web exams (with Amy Wong), British Journal of Educational Technology, 40 (2), 227-236).

• Williams, Jeremy B. (2007) E-xams: harnessing the power of ICTs to enhance authenticity, (with Wing Lam and Alton Chua), Educational Technology and Society, 10 (3), 209-221.

• Williams, Jeremy B. (2007) Using digital storytelling as an assessment instrument: Preliminary findings at an online university, (with Kanishka Bedi), Proceedings of the 11th CAA Conference, pp.433-447, Loughborough, England, 10-11 July.

• Williams, Jeremy B. (2006) The place of the closed book, invigilated final examination in a knowledge economy, Educational Media International, 43(2), 107-119.

CreditsAlan Blinder, http://halleinstitute.emory.edu/images/research/blinder_largeGrant Wiggins, http://myworldpearson.com/images/wiggins.jpgMCQs, http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2856522/2/istockphoto_2856522_multiple_choice_exam.jpgExam halls, http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01529/exam-hall_1529387c.jpg~ http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/schools/graphics/ewert2.JPG~ http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SQORvbJYKhErQ67sYQgdVg~ http://qixsaliva.blogspot.com/2007/04/final-destination-2.html~ http://www.fotosearch.com/thumb/DGV/DGV078/200239868-001.jpgBruce Wellman http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/question-everything/Students will cheat http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e47/priyankashis/cheating.jpgCheating http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e47/priyankashis/cheating.jpg

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