This document provides an interim report on the CIT-EA project which aims to explore barriers to and improve uptake of e-assessment in colleges. It discusses challenges such as staff capacity and infrastructure issues but also emerging solutions like collaborative frameworks and a toolkit. The toolkit will provide guidance on redesigning assessment and integrating e-assessment, aimed at teachers, technicians and managers. It will cover topics such as assessment options, design tools, preparing students, and managerial considerations. The project aims to better understand e-assessment practices and barriers and develop recommendations for a national e-assessment service.

1. E-ASSESSMENT
TAKING A SYSTEMATIC
APPROACH
THE CIT-EA PROJECT
INTERIM REPORT
JOHN CASEY
JENNIFER LOUDON
CITY OF GLASGOW COLLEGE

2. THE CIT-EA PROJECT
CREATING INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY-
ENHANCED ASSESSMENTS
CITY OF GLASGOW COLLEGE
SCOTTISH QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY (SQA)
COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT NETWORK (CDN)
STUDENT PARTICIPATION IN QUALITY SCOTLAND (SPARQS )
CITY OF GLASGOW COLLEGE
EDINBURGH COLLEGE
BORDERS COLLEGE
AYRSHIRE COLLEGE
JISC RSC SCOTLAND
COLLEGES E-ASSESSMENT GROUP (CEAG)
WALTER PATTERSON CONSULTANCY

3. ABOUT THE CIT-EA PROJECT
Aims & Objectives
• Explore and address barriers via practical project work:
• Intervention:
• Time,
• Training,
• Support
• Create processes to improve uptake of e-assessment:
• Outputs:
• Toolkit
• Collaborative framework
• Case Study
• Recommendations for a national service
• Funded by JISC

4. POTENTIAL BENEFITS
• Improve the experiences of learners
• Authentic, valid, workplace relevant assessment
• Efficiency and effectiveness of providers
• Larger cohorts, quicker feedback, improved administration
• Engage employers and other stakeholders
• Co-design of suitable assessments
• Transferable lessons for other subject areas
• Toolkit, Framework & National Recommendations
• Support flexible and inclusive learning opportunities
• Engaging, appropriate, learner-centered, personalised
• Support learner, employer and community needs
• Employability, skills and progression

5. INITIAL CHALLENGES
• Staff and learner capacity
• Time
• Overly prescriptive assessment guidelines (?)
• Confidence of staff and learners
• IT infrastructure

6. EMERGING ISSUES
• Internal / external verification concerns (myths?)
• Digital literacies
• Pedagogic literacies
• Up-front design needed
• Team work helps
• Systemic factors…assessment is central
• Usability of the tools and support
• Student preparation
• IT infrastructure / inclusion / accessibility

7. EMERGING SOLUTIONS
• Time is critical
• Support is essential for wider adoption
• Simple design templates
• EV/IV ‘Narrative’ required
• Designs and EV/IV narratives stored and shared
• Test new assessments and refine
• Involve / prepare students
• Collaborative frameworks
• College to college, subjects, agencies,
employers, students

8. EMERGING FINDINGS
• Staff skills consistent with last ETNA report
• VLE and e-Portfolio: use, training and confidence
• E-Assessment as a driver for wider change…
• System-wide / aware approach needed
• E-assessment exists on a continuum
• Small changes can be radical in some contexts
• Sparks deep reflection by teachers
• Prompts course redesign
• Highlights teaching and organisational cultures

9. OUTPUTS – OVERVIEW
• Toolkit
• Case Study (HN Business)
• Collaborative frameworks – guidance on development
• Future national service recommendations

10. TOOLKIT OVERVIEW
• Challenges:
• Needs to be short as possible and as long as
necessary…
• Relevant, authentic, useful
• Support different types of use and user
• Target users:
• Teachers
• Learning technologists / support staff
• Managers
• 3 Types of use:
• Quick reference, practical help, further information

11. TOOLKIT FORMATS
• Creative Commons Licences – mainly ‘BY’
• Allows editing and adaptations
• Digital distribution / output formats
• Word (rtf and editable)
• Open doc. format (editable & for non MS shops)
• PDF (plays on any pdf reader & prints well)
• Web (on website)
• Downloadable web version (as zip and editable)

12. TOOLKIT CONTENT
1. About this guide
2. Getting started
3. Assessment redesign
4. Hands on
5. Learning and Teaching
6. Managerial Issues
7. Further information

13. TOOLKIT CONTENT - 1
1 - About this guide
• Purpose and audiences
• Background
• Approach
• Using this guide

14. TOOLKIT CONTENT - 2
2 - Getting started
• Assessment - the 'business' of formal education
• Types of assessment
• Why change? The advantages of e-assessment
• The virtues of paper
• The e-assessment continuum
• The assessment lifecycle
• Your Context
 Students
 Subject area
 Institution
• Typical obstacles
• Problem solving strategies

15. TOOLKIT CONTENT - 3
3 - Assessment redesign
• Reviewing existing practice
• Assessment Options
• Making assessment more authentic and flexible
• Redesigning assessment
• Pedagogic literacies
• Design tools and techniques
• Automation- MCQ and ‘Objective Testing’
• Managing question banks
• Testing your designs
• Internal and External Verification
• Institutional Issues

16. TOOLKIT CONTENT - 4
4 - Hands on
• Moodle
• Mahara
• Turnitin / GradeMark
• Respondus etc.
• Assessment Management
 Content
 Results
 Process
• Digital Literacies
• Preparing students
• Preparing staff
• Testing and Troubleshooting
• Accessibility and Alternative Arrangements

17. TOOLKIT CONTENT - 5
5 - Learning and Teaching
• Integrating e-Assessment into learning and teaching
• The bigger picture
• Useful models of learning
• Re-designing teaching to take advantage of e-assessment
• visualization and design tools
• Out of the silo
• Professional and organizational change

18. TOOLKIT CONTENT - 6
6 - Managerial Issues
• Resourcing
 Staff time
 Technical support
 Quality management
• Culture Change
 Quality management (digital records)
 Team teaching, project based assessment etc.
 Data management
 Simple analysis and visualisation tools
 Institutional Alignment

19. TOOLKIT CONTENT - 7
7 - Further information
• References and Web links
• Detailed guides from JISC / QAA etc.
• Software help manuals (online)
• Useful contacts

20. END