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FEATURE FOCUS: EXAMS
journey. Whether you’re an employer, a college admissions officer or for whatever purpose you are using assessment, having an assessment system that gives you a fair and accurate view of what you need to know about a student is so important. Many university examinations took to open
book exams with lockdowns and social distancing rules restricting the traditional exam methods. It meant assessments often took place over a 24 to 48-hour window. These open book exams are far from the traditional approach. Rather than pure memory recall, this format of assessments effectively test students’ problem-solving, creativity, and application of knowledge.
Preparation for the modern job market It’s about time students were tested in the most authentic way, a way that matches the needs of employers and the job market. For instance, accountancy firms already assess learners in this manner, whereby the focus is on a student’s interpretation and analysis – rather than their ability to memorise facts alone. After all, you wouldn’t work in an accountancy
firm and complete balance sheets by hand. Nor would you work in a brokerage and be required to handwrite a policy document as if it were the 70s. A better approach to the modern job market is
of high value to the learner, but it can also offer a world of benefits to teachers. Timing wise, teachers are already under pressure and as Ofsted reported, teachers work 12 hours a week more than the average full-time employee does. Reducing that time strain is critical to many
schools. Thankfully, growing evidence suggests digital assessment can play a key role in reducing elements of this workload.
Time-saving capabilities Advances in AI can automatically generate questions and tasks that are then, in real time,
marked and graded. What that means is responses and feedback is often immediate. While this level of automation is not suitable in all cases and, is not to undermine the teacher stage, it does give teachers back more time to focus on high-quality interventions. This is all possible from digital assessment’s
capacity to provides a wealth of data. This data generates a much greater level of actionable insights for teachers and examination organisations that, in turn, drive improvements to both the learner and assessor. For instance, digital assessment can easily
highlight ‘common misunderstandings’ in subjects, rather than just wrong answers. For teachers this means they’re provided with information on where they need to pay extra attention, ensuring all topic areas are understood. Again, this is often possible in real time, allowing the teacher to make on-the-fly adjustments to their teaching. This results in a far more personal learning
experience for the student – particularly if the additional time that teachers gain from the reduction in marking is reinvested in a targeted intervention. Here, there’s endless opportunity for teachers to build far stronger student-teacher connection. And on an individual basis, this can have a bigger impact on the learner’s engagement with their education and eventual academic outcome.
Not a ‘one size fits all’ approach That all said, it is important to remember that no solution is one size fits all, and there are different forms of assessment for different subjects, pupils and schools. For example, with subjects that have clearly wrong or right answers like maths, on- screen testing makes it far easier to enable the creation of assessments that accommodate the full range of student abilities. Then, in more subjective areas like English literature, art and music, there’s a growing trend
towards peer-to-peer assessment. Using principles like adaptive comparative judgment can open the door to a greater depth of feedback to students, permitting teachers to use their professional expertise to maximum effect.
What the transition requires Many schools have looked to technologies to facilitate remote learning and virtual lessons across what’s been more than two years now – and they should be commended for their efforts and persistence. Looking ahead, before schools make their move, they need to be aware of what digital assessment has to offer, and teachers need to be sufficiently trained on how both students and they can benefit. An appropriate first step to make this transition
would be to start by introducing digital assessment for a particular course of study or subject. It’s a way to get teachers on board by being the ‘staff room topic’ of the benefits, whilst not feeling like a total sudden overhaul of the assessment approach. Scaling up technology with ease to suit a full
transition in the future is possible. Similar approaches have worked well for schools before – this was common when it came to introducing new platforms such as Microsoft Teams to deliver hybrid teaching or changing over the school infrastructure to one based in the cloud. Essentially, there’s been undeniable progress
made to introduce technology into schools following the pandemic. Now, equipping teachers and pupils with the means to continue their education in a modern age needs to be the next disruption. Then, with the right tools in place, teachers can
reduce their time spent marking, and developing new materials in order to focus on what they always do best – building meaningful, effective relationships with learners and inspiring a passion for learning.
May 2022
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