Engaging students through e-assessment

Developing richer, authentic and more meaningful assessment tasks that engage students was the focus of a visit by University of Adelaide scholar Geoff Crisp to USQ recently.

As part of his visit, Professor Crisp discussed his Carrick Associate Fellowship project which aims to improve the alignment between learning activities and assessment tasks.

'Everything we can do that engages students in learning enables them to show what they have learnt. Engagement brings out advanced skills and the knowledge they have learnt. You need to offer students the opportunity to show that,' Professor Crisp said.

'There are a number of areas of e-assessment which can be used in face-to-face sessions, in curriculum development or in computer activities, to engage students.

'E-assessment involves getting the students to use digital resources either on the computer or through the internet. It can take the form of questions delivered by desktop, laptop, phone or the internet,' Professor Crisp said.

Interactivity through e-assessment means students engage much more in the learning process, he said.

'It puts more responsibility back on the students and requires them to generate new data and new information which moves beyond simply recalling what they have been told.

'It is far more important to assess how students are coming up with new ways of thinking and doing things rather than just how well they remember facts.'

Professor Crisp said e-assessment can be applied to different faculties and areas of study.

'You can use simulations which allow students to manipulate information and data. One example could be in a physics class where individual students use a simulated experiment and place the results in the e-assessment, instead of getting all students to do the same standard calculations.

'It allows different sorts of questions, more sophisticated questions and for students to construct responses rather than select responses.'

'You could simulate running a business and give students the ability to trade on the stock exchange and let them see what happens. It's about rethinking the types of questions we ask students.'

Professor Crisp is currently developing a selection of examples of how academic staff can prepare interactive computer-based assessments for his Carrick project.

'The Carrick project involves finding examples that are relatively simple for students to use so they aren't spending time working out how to use the software, but rather spending time learning and constructing answers.

'For this type of assessment to work it needs to be interactive, easy to use, able to be applied in different contexts and able to be used and re-used in different programs.

'People need to think about what is going to be useful for students, not only while they are learning, but when they go into the workforce as well.'

Janet Taylor is Academic Learning Skills Coordinator in LTSU and said USQ has implemented some e-assessment components to engage students in learning.

'USQ is doing some of these things now but it makes the process easier with the repository of examples and tools.

'We are looking at the tools that are already available. The academics don't have to develop the tools, they simply call the tools from a server or website and use them.

'You always have to change your offerings to suit the students. USQ is in the process of thinking a lot about learning and teaching and assessment and how assessment can be there for learning.'

Media Contact: Jane Urquhart USQ Media +61 7 4631 2559