Thursday 5 July 2012
Question from Prof. Diana Laurillard’s keynote session #2
While we are apprised that we should look at e-learning and other forms or innovative ways of training so that we can not only encourage adults to learn from the comfort of their homes or anyplace, how would this change the assessment systems in the future for WDA programs? Should we not change the current way of assessing our learners?
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Yes certainly. The assessment is the most powerful driver in education - it is what both teachers and learners focus on most of all. So
ReplyDeleteif the teaching is taking advantage of the technology to learn new and different skills to a higher level, then yes the assessment should change to reflect that;
if it is being used to achieve the same outcomes as before, then it does not need to;
if the technology can provide a better way of assessing learning outcomes, then yes it should be used to do this.
A better way of assessing could be more reliable - same for all, and technology is good at standardising. It could mean more valid, so it assesses, e.g. operating competence, which it can do with a simulation better than an oral exam because it is a tougher test. And it could be better because it saves teacher time by the computer doing the marking. This is tricky to do, and usually uses multiple choice questions, which too often simply allow guessing, so are not valid. But if you use, say, a simulation to get students to set the right initial parameters to achieve a specific result - yes the computer can do that.
The assessment must fit the learning outcomes and teaching methods. If these are changing then we have to keep checking that the assessment still fits.