The document discusses assessment approaches for digital futures. It advocates for assessment that focuses on relationships, authenticity, and meaningful student creation and connectivity. Some key points: - Assessment should build trust, offer flexibility, and clarify expectations to rebuild social relationships strained by the pandemic. - Authentic assessment uses contextualized tasks, peer/self-evaluation, choice, and positions students as creators. This could include meme-related, YouTube, blog, or vlog assignments. - Developing student evaluative expertise is important, such as analyzing exemplars of different quality. Exemplars can act as proxies for feedback. - Feedback literacy involves student understandings, capacities, and dispositions to use feedback for improvement,

1. Assessment for digital futures
Professor David Carless,
@CarlessDavid
University of Hong Kong,
Quality Insights Digital Conference,
February 24, 2021
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2. Overview
1. Virtues & assessment
2. Assessment functions
3. Digital assessment designs
4. Feedback & feedback literacy
5. Implications & problematizations
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3. Moral virtues
“The only way to fight the
plague is with decency”
Albert Camus,
La Peste (The Plague)
Cf. Academic integrity
(Bruce Macfarlane)
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4. Assessment for relationships
Rebuilding the social & relational
Building trust
Offering flexibility
Clarifying expectations
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5. Assessment for social justice
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6. An alternative vision
• Trust
• Honesty
• Responsibility
• Forgiveness
• Responsiveness
(McArthur, 2018)
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7. ASSESSMENT FUNCTIONS
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8. Competing assessment functions
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Judging student
achievement
Satisfying
accountability
needs
Stimulating
productive
student
learning

9. The University of Hong Kong
Productive assessment
design
Development of student
evaluative expertise
Development of
student
feedback literacy
Learning-oriented assessment framework
(LOAF)

10. 1. DIGITAL ASSESSMENT
DESIGNS
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11. Guiding principles
Flexibility and choice
Staff-student partnerships
Demonstrate expectations
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12. Authentic Assessment
Adapted from Eddy & Lawrence (2013)
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Assessment as
Process
Contextualised
Tasks
Peer & self-
evaluation
Choice and
Flexibility
Students as
Creators

14. Authenticity to students’ lives
Assessment resonating with students’ daily
experiences
Social media
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15. Meme-related assessment
• Select & explain a concept from the
course that has personal meaning to you
• Choose & elaborate a meme or gif that
illustrates the concept
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16. YouTube related assignment
• Identify & curate YouTube content relevant
to a selected course concept
• Explain choice & added value
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17. Assessed video presentations
Students record a 5 minute oral presentation
and upload for assessment
E.g. Talk about a course topic that has most
personal meaning for you & explain why
Oral assessment as alternative to exams
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18. The University of Hong Kong

19. Blogs as assessment
• Process
• Reflections
• Students as communicators more than
receivers of knowledge
(Christie & Morris, 2019)
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20. Vlogs as assessment
Short personal responses
Peer feedback
Summative written and/or oral reflection
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21. Chemistry vlog example
Students summarize a concept
Provide example problems
Elaborate real-life applications
@DrKucukkal
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22. Assessment design principles
• Iterative sequences of worthwhile tasks
• Related to real-life
• Students creating new knowledge
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23. Digital assessment
“A digital assignment can live on. It can be
iterative, public, risky and multi-voiced.”
(Ross, Bayne & Lamb, 2019, p. 26)
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24. 2. EVALUATIVE EXPERTISE
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25. Student evaluative expertise
• Developing a nose for quality
• Analyzing multiple exemplars of different
standards
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26. Analyzing digital exemplars
• Students develop outline or draft
• Exemplars of different quality shared
• Asynchronous discussion
• Students compare exemplars to own work
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27. Exemplars as proxies for feedback
High quality exemplars act as inputs which
stimulate students’ internal feedback
(Carless, 2020; Nicol, 2020)
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28. 3. FEEDBACK LITERACY
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29. Defining student feedback literacy
Understandings, capacities & dispositions
needed to use feedback for improvement
(Carless & Boud, 2018).
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30. Student feedback literacy
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Making
Judgments
Appreciating
Feedback
Managing
Affect
Taking Action
(Carless & Boud, 2018)

31. Feedback strategy
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
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32. Audio/video feedback modes
Enable rapport &
nuance
You can talk faster than you can write
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33. Teacher video feedback
Video feedback enables social presence
Allied with student response or follow-up
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34. Peer video feedback
Peer-to-peer video feedback delivered via
Facebook
Hung (2016)
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35. Social media for feedback?
Course interaction on social media
Feedback received on mobile devices
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I want feedback
on…

36. Emoticons & feedback
Embedding digital cues enhanced students’
perceptions of instructor social presence &
accessibility (Padgett et al., 2021)
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37. The University of Hong Kong

38. Implications
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39. Innovation conundrum
Innovative assessment might be fun in the
eyes of the teacher but for us it is more like
hard work. Sometimes they don’t give much
guidance and it is like ‘sort it out yourself.’
(Student informant, Carless, 2019)
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40. Connected program-based assessment
Judicious balance of continuity & variety of
assessment tasks
Enabling familiarity with expectations
Latent learning from previous feedback
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41. ‘Small’ teacher change
Sparking positive change
through small but powerful
adjustments informed by
learning sciences
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42. Small change assessment example
Enable students to practice sub-skills
required for an assessment task
E.g.
• Drafting paragraphs
• Preparing slides
Lang (2016) chapter 5
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43. Change needs courage
Overcoming challenges
Doing what is good for students
Quality not just QA
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44. Tackling cheating concerns
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45. The University of Hong Kong

46. Summary
Assessment for relationships
Assessment for authenticity
Assessment for meaningful creation
Assessment for connectivity
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47. References
Carless, D. (2015a). Excellence in University Assessment. London: Routledge.
Carless, D. (2015b). Exploring learning-oriented assessment processes. Higher Education, 69(6), 963-
976.
Carless, D. (2019). Feedback loops and the longer-term: Towards feedback spirals. Assessment and
Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(5), 705-714. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1531108
Carless, D. (2020). From teacher transmission of information to student feedback literacy: Activating
the learner role in feedback processes. Active Learning in Higher Education.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787420945845
Carless, D. & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: Enabling uptake of
feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354.
Carless, D. & N. Winstone (2020). Teacher feedback literacy and its interplay with student feedback
literacy. Teaching in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1782372
Dawson, P. (2021). Defending assessment security in a digital world. London: Routledge.
Eddy, P.L., & Lawrence, A. (2013). Wikis as platforms for authentic assessment. Innovative Higher
Education, 38(4), 253-265.
Hung, S.-T.A. (2016). Enhancing feedback provision through multimodal video technology. Computers
& Education, 98, 90-101.
Lang, J. M. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass
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48. References (continued)
Liu, C. (2018). Social media as a student response system: New evidence on learning impact.
Research in Learning Technology, 26, 1-29.
Mahoney, P., Macfarlane, S., & Ajjawi, R. (2019). A qualitative synthesis of video feedback in higher
education. Teaching in Higher Education, 24(2), 157-179.
McArthur, J. (2018). Assessment for social justice: Perspectives and practices within higher education.
London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Nicol, D. (2020) The power of internal feedback: Exploiting natural comparison processes.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1823314
Padgett, C., Moffitt, R., & Grieve, R. (2021). More than words: Using digital cues to enhance student
perceptions of online assignment feedback. The Internet and Higher Education.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2020.100789
Ross, J., Bayne, S., Lamb, J (2019). Critical approaches to valuing digital education: learning
with and from the Manifesto for Teaching Online. Digital Culture & Education, 11(1), 22-35.
Tang, Y., & K.F. Hew. (2017). Using Twitter for education: Beneficial or simply a waste of time?
Computers & Education, 106, 97-118.
To, J. (2021). Using learner-centred feedback design to promote students’ engagement with feedback.
Higher Education Research and Development.
Winstone, N., & Carless, D. (2019). Designing effective feedback processes in higher education: A
learning-focused approach. London: Routledge.
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49. QUESTIONS
&
COMMENTS
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50. Learning-oriented assessment
Summative vs formative
Effective student learning as a key aim of all
assessment
(Carless, 2015a,b)
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51. Implementing peer feedback
• Scaffolding & coaching
• Selling benefits
• Modelling
• Multiple reviews e.g. trios
• Leveraging comparisons
• Opportunities for dialogue then revision
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52. (Carless & Winstone, 2020)
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Designing for uptake
Relational sensitivities
Managing practicalities
Teacher Feedback Literacy
Student Feedback Literacy
Appreciate feedback
Refine evaluative judgments
Take action in response to feedback
Work with emotions productively

53. Information  action
(Winstone & Carless, 2019)
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54. Social media & feedback
Students share work in progress on
Facebook (e.g. Carless, 2015a)
Use of Twitter for academic interaction (Liu,
2018; Tang & Hew, 2017)
Feedback received on mobile devices e.g
via WhatsApp (To, 2021)
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55. Transforming assessment
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