MASTER IN TEL

PROFESSOR: HORTENSIA
REYES

Students can escape FRANK AMECA

bad teaching, but they
cant escape bad
assessment. David
Boud
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How can technology be used with assessment evaluation?

Measuring learning is a necessary part of every teachers work. Teachers need to
check for student understanding, and parents, students, and leaders need to know
how students are doing overall in order to help them successfully prepare for
school and/or work.

Two approaches to assessment

Formative assessment
The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing
feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students
to improve their learning. More specifically, formative assessments:

help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that
need work

help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems
immediately

Formative assessments are generally low stakes, which means that they have low
or no point value. Examples of formative assessments include asking students to:

draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic

submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture

turn in a research proposal for early feedback

Summative assessment
The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an
instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.

Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high
point value. Examples of summative assessments include:

a midterm exam

a final project

a paper

a senior recital
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Using technology for assessment

The use of technology in supporting teaching and learning in education is
widespread. However, the use of technology to deliver and manage assessment is
less common. So much so that in some instances there may be a disconnect
between the modes and methods of learning and the ways in which students are
assessed. Many students experience blended learning throughout their programs,
only to sit down to traditional, paper-based essay questions under exam conditions
for their final summative assessment.

Technology-based assessments allow for a variety of question types beyond the

limited multiple-choice, true-or-false, or fill-in-the-blank options that have
characterized traditional assessments. Examples of enhanced question types
include the following:

Graphic response, which includes any item to which students respond by

drawing, moving, arranging, or selecting graphic regions

Hot text, in which students select or rearrange sentences or phrases within

a passage

Performance-based assessments, in which students perform a series of

complex tasks

New technologies can enhance the assessment and feedback processes by

offering options to provide, for example, short audio feedback responses to
students or online peer assessment by students. They can also offer more
sustainable options which allow you to create interactive grading forms which can
be assigned to any assessment.
Technology Enhanced Assessment (TEA) is a broad term that encompasses the
diverse methods by which technology can be used to support the management and
delivery of assessment. TEA does not mean simply replacing existing assessments
with digital versions, but rather making use of technology to tackle some of the
operational and pedagogic issues of assessment.

Advantages and disadvantages of using

technology for assessment
Advantages

Improves authenticity and alignment with learning outcomes

TEA can take a great many forms, and the design flexibility that this might afford
you allows you to assess a wide range of students' skills and competences beyond
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simply recall. By allowing a broader range of skills to be tested in a number of

different ways it becomes much easier for you to make the tasks more authentic
and align assessments with the learning outcomes of a module. TEA also provides
you with the opportunity to replicate the sort of tasks that students will be expected
to complete in the workplace in a risk free environment.

Helps to clarify marking criteria

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) such as Moodle and Blackboard, allow you to
present assessment criteria clearly within the module information, ensuring
marking criteria are transparent and accessible to all students.

Spreads the assessment load for staff and students

Digital platforms allow the delivery of assessments to be scheduled. TEA also

makes it easier to repurpose and reuse your resources (learning objects) and can
enable automatic marking, thus further reducing your workload.

Assessments delivered via digital platforms can be scheduled and automatically

released at set intervals, thus enabling the assessment load (and its associated
marking and feedback provision) to be spread throughout the term, which can
reduce the sense of assessment overload for you and your students. Using
technology can increase assessment efficiency by, for example, allowing the
creation of reusable resources (learning objects) and by facilitating automatic
marking. Technology can provide a means of delivering rapid feedback, or even
automate the process, making it clear to students when they have performed well
and hopefully clarifying the assessment criteria even further.

Improves student engagement and promotes deeper learning

The use of technology to enhance assessment can also be a boost to student

engagement by enabling diverse assessment methods to be implemented,
supporting active learning, allowing more frequent formative assessment and by
extension promoting deeper learning and improvements in grades. Using a broader
range of assessment methods can also allow a wider range of skills to be
assessed.

Additional benefits to using TEA include:

increased flexibility as students can access online assessments at any time

and at any place where a connection is available, even on their mobile
phones. This provides additional flexibility for learning and allows students
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to access assessments at a time that best suits their individual learning

approaches and needs;

readily available statistics on student performance, which can also enable

courses to be more easily reviewed.

Disadvantages
Despite the numerous benefits to be derived from implementing TEA, you may find
that there are also a number of 'costs' associated with its use:

Finances and staff time

One of the biggest issues of implementing TEA is the associated cost, both
monetary and in terms of your time and effort, which need to be weighed up
against the associated pedagogic benefits. Assessment design (both conceptual
and aesthetic) is an important consideration when creating TEAs and can
sometimes take a lot of time to get right.

Accessibility issues
Digital literacy among students (as well as staff) is far from a level playing field and
as such some students may be uncomfortable with the use of TEA. The
requirements of students with special educational needs must also be taken into
account from the outset and, if necessary, alternative methods of assessment
provided.

However, use of TEA can also improve accessibility, for instance, by allowing
students to submit audio or video assignments in lieu of written ones and by
enabling students to change the way that electronic assessments are presented
(e.g. text size, colour etc) to suit their needs.

Large-scale introduction requires a significant level of institutional buy in

Implementing TEA within an individual assessment, or the assessment programme
for a module is not an insignificant undertaking, but is achievable. Initiating a
broader transformation, however, requires a high level of investment, both in
technology and in staff and student training, particularly if the assessment is to be
used summatively. Any widespread implementation needs to be aligned with
institutional and external policies and the pedagogic benefits to students clearly
identified. You also need to ensure that there is a commitment to provide adequate
support both for the production of assessment materials and their delivery. Such a
shift may require a cultural change that can take sometimes take a while to
achieve. This further emphasises the need for a strong pedagogic grounding for
any decisions to move in this direction.
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Sense of isolation
If a shift to online assessment results in a reduction in contact time or face-to-face
interaction with other students, it might result in students feeling a sense of
isolation. This is cited as one of students' main concerns about the wider
implementation of TEA

Further issues to consider include:

the potential for hardware or software issues to prevent the assessment

from taking place;

difficulty in confirming the identity of students completing online

assessments outside of the classroom;

resistance to change by students and staff.

Tools for assessment

BubbleSheet An app that allows students to complete assignments and
common assessments using an iPhone or iPad Quizzes up to 10 questions are
free.

Socrative Engaging exercises and games that engage students using

smartphones, laptops and tablets.

Google Forms A Google Drive app that allows you to create documents that
students can collaborate on in real time using smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Mentimeter Allows you to use mobile phones or tablets to vote on any question
a teacher asks, increasing student engagement.

PollDaddy Quick and easy way to create online polls, quizzes and questions.
Students can use smartphones, tablets, and computers to provide their answers
and information can be culled for reports.

- Kahoot - lets teacher build fun quizzes. Students use computers, cell phones, or
other devices to join in the game. Teachers can create flashcards for review. They
can also embed videos and use Kahoot as part of the teaching process, or
students can create review games to share.

Finally, as seen in this research assessment and evaluation have evolved and now
teachers can provide feedback immediately as well as using a great variety of tools
for assessing their students. Among the many benefits, the option to provide
enhancing versions of traditional assessments engages students more in their
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learning making them be part of it and work towards it. The use of technology for
assessment brings new possibilities and advantages to ones teaching but diverse
disadvantages might block its use, that is why, teachers must investigate their
educational environment firstly.
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References
Carnegie Mellon Universit. (NI). What is the difference between formative and summative
assessment?. March 2017, de Carnegie Mellon University Sitio web:
https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html

Davis V. (January 2015). 5 Fantastic, Fast, Formative Assessment Tools. March 2017, de
Edutopia Sitio web: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-fast-formative-assessment-tools-
vicki-davis

Department of Education. (NI). Measuring for Learning. March 2017, de Department of

Education Sitio web: https://tech.ed.gov/netp/assessment/

Dyer K. (July 2013). Digital Technology Tools for Implementing Formative Assessment
Post One. March 2017, de nwea Sitio web: https://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/digital-
technology-tools-for-implementing-formative-assessment-post-one/

Edtechteacher. (NI). Assessing Student Learning. March 2017, de edtechteacher.org Sitio

web: http://edtechteacher.org/assessment/

Ploth R. (March 2016). How I Got Started Using Technology To Assess Student Learning.
March 2017, de teachthought Sitio web:
http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/assessment/how-i-got-started-using-technology-to-
assess-student-learning/

University of Reading. (NI). Introducing technology enhanced assessment. March 2017, de

University of Reading Sitio web: https://www.reading.ac.uk/engageinassessment/using-
technology/eia-introducing-technology-enhanced-assessment.aspx