The document discusses innovative assessment in higher education. It defines innovative assessment as encompassing a wide range of techniques and methods, not just new inventions, with the common goal of improving student learning. Innovative assessment aims to produce deep learning, motivate and commit students, and develop transferable skills through assessment done with and by learners. Critics argue innovative assessment may be less rigorous or demanding for students, while proponents believe it can provide fairer assessment of a broader range of skills and more reliable evaluation of learning when using multiple methods.

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Developing Innovative
Assessment -
Taking new approaches to
assessment
Richard Oelmann
CELT Seminar
(Caerleon 9/2/16)

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Richard Oelmann
• Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
• Senior Learning Technologist
• Previously – taught on Primary Initial Teacher
Training
• Previously – Deputy Head Teacher

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Seminar Summary
“Innovative Assessment could be any form of assessment which
involves the application of a new technique or method….however,
innovative assessment has come to mean more than that; it is a term
we use which encompasses a whole range of different techniques
and methods, not all of which are new inventions. What Unites them
is a common goal; to improve the quality of student learning” (Mowl
2006, pg2)
This session will look at what is meant by ‘Innovative
Assessment’ and how we can take new approaches to
Assessment into our own teaching.

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How and why is assessment
changing?
•Declining resources
•Students have changed
•Changing nature of society
•Employer contribution (need for
employability skills)
•People learn what they want to learn
and in different ways.

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Innovative assessment could be any form of
assessment which involves the application of a new
technique or method. (Mowl, 2005)
Innovative assessment is also about ‘the redistribution
of educational power' when assessment becomes not
just something which is 'done to' learners but also 'done
with' and 'done by' learners (Harris and Bell, 1990).
What is Innovative Assessment

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Innovative assessment is not just some trendy, new
technique dreamt-up purely to save on the amount of
time teachers spend on marking, it is a genuine attempt
to improve the quality of learning in higher education.
(Mowl, 2005)
Innovative assessment aims to produce a
more fertile learning environment and a
more rewarding learning experience for
all teachers and students.
What is Innovative Assessment

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Innovative Assessment aims to
produce students who are...
deep rather than surface learners
highly motivated and committed
enterprising
equipped with a range of transferable skills
capable of self-criticism and evaluation
fairly and reliably assessed
active and reactive participants in the learning
process, capable of 'creative dissent' rather than
simply passive, uncritical recipients of other people's
knowledge.
(Cowan,2006)

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Constructive Alignment
All components of the Learning Environment
support each other
(Biggs 1999)
Assessments
Teaching and
Learning
Activities
Learning
Objectives

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Assessment FOR Learning
•Authentic assessment – engaging, meaningful assessment tasks
•Students developing as learners – effective attributes and skills to
self-assess and evaluate their own learning
•Informal feedback – e.g. in-class group discussions, peer review
•Formal feedback – range of forms of feedback, used at a number of
stages
•Practice, rehearsal – opportunities to learn practice
•Formative and summative – appropriate balancing of these two
types of assessment
(Sambell et al 2013)

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A consensus in the field

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Example Developing a Glossary
•Social work module: observations of practice
•Develop a Glossary as an assessment
–Identified academic terms, writing definitions, indicating
sources
–Personal, Illustrative evidence of relevance of term (e.g. from
practice observations, peer discussion)
•Encouraging research reading, learning to write concisely
•Looking at different theoretical perspectives, linking theory to
practice
Adapted from Sambell et al (2013, p18)

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Example: problems in the work
place
•Business studies module looking at corporate management
•Assessment related to workplace improvement
•Managers from organisations: talks on workplace problems
–Students suggesting solutions through presenting these
–Posters to disseminate ideas for workplace improvement
Adapted from Sambell et al (2013, p22)

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Student Led Learning
Student Led Assessment
Presented at Westminster Forum 2015
• Induction lecture – remaining allocated course time all in the form
of optional seminars and face-face support
• All course materials provided up front
• Student gets to decide when to undertake the assessment
• Student gets to revisit assessment process
Good enough
Keep Going – get highest grade
Got to pass

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Forms of Assessment

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Activity: Group Discussion
Innovative Assessment…
Pandora’s Box Or Cornucopia?

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Activity: Group Discussion
Innovative Assessment…
Pandora’s Box Or Cornucopia?
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/static/5007/arpdf
/academy/redguide17.pdf

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Looking at Assessment Literacy

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What is Assessment Literacy?
•A grasp of assessment in relation to learning
•An understanding of assessment
–Principles of valid assessment
–Terminology
•The meaning of assessment criteria and standards
•Self and peer assessment skills
•Using appropriate approaches or techniques for assessment tasks
Price et al (2012)

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Activity: Integrating Assessment
Literacy
•In what ways could assessment literacy be integrated?
–An understanding of assessment
–The meaning of assessment criteria and standards
–Self and peer assessment skills
–Using appropriate approaches or techniques for assessment
tasks

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The Assessment Compact
Based on http://www.brookes.ac.uk/aske/BrookesACompact/

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Pause for Final
Though
Insights, Reflections, Actions
What changes would you
make?

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Literally defined, innovative assessment could be any form of assessment which involves the application of a newtechnique or method. For us, however, innovative assessment has come to mean more than that; it
is a term we use which encompasses a whole range of different techniques and methods, not all of which are new inventions.
Innovative assessment is also about what Heron (1981) called ‘the redistribution of educational power’ when assessment becomes not just something which is ‘done to’ learners but also ‘done with’ and ‘done by’
learners (Harris and Bell, 1990).
For example, in any form of assessment it is usually beneficial for the learner to receive detailed feedback indicating their strengths and weaknesses in the area of assessed work and suggesting areas where
improvements or changes might be made in the future.
[[Grade only / Single feedback at end of module]]
Secondly, it aims to produce a more fertile learning environment and a more rewarding learning experience for all teachers and students.
Pandora’s Box?
10 common criticisms of innovative assessment, answered [[SEE REDGUIDE DOC FOR RESPONSES]]
1. Innovative assessment is just a ‘soft option’, simply less ‘rigorous’ than traditional forms of assessment. E.g. those people who can’t put
together a decent essay pick up marks just by giving a ten-minute talk or worse still, marking their own work.
2.Innovative assessment is too demanding, putting unreasonable pressure on some students. Somepeople would argue that whether you’re good at working in a group or not depends on ‘personality’ and that
those who are ‘loners’ or ‘shy’ won’t do well on group tasks – and it could be very stressful for them.
3. How can assessment be reliable if people other than the lecturers are involved in it? (e.g. employers, self/peer assessment)? Academics are,
after all, the experts aren’t they? Surely no student in their right mind is going to fail themselves?
4. Will innovative assessment work with increased student numbers? Is it more time consuming for staff?
5. Surely innovative assessment which is varied and requires lots of different things from students is too much of a burden for them – wouldn’t they prefer just to do an exam and get it over with?
6. If you give students too much help (formative feedback) – won’t you end up doing the work for them? Is this a fair test of their abilities?
7. The role of HE is to develop students’ academic abilities and critical thinking. Surely assessments which are based on their performance in a
workplace or skills they will need at work after graduating are just a distraction?
8. If there is too much assessment during a course, even if it is innovative, won’t students be overburdened with work and tend to take a surface
approach to their studies?
9. Why should students have so much choice in relation to assessment? Surely the lecturers know best what it is students need to learn in the subject
and they should have to be tested on that.
10. Is innovative assessment fair? Often it can’t be anonymous and marking is highly subjective: take the case of the black student barristers failing on video assessments although they passed the written tests.
Cornucopia?
8 possible benefits of innovative assessment
1. By incorporating a range of different methods innovative assessment assesses a broader range of skills and as such it is considered to be fairer and less discriminatory. Consequently, innovative assessment
should have the effect of widening access to Higher Education and perhaps widening success.
2. Innovative assessment is a more reliable assessment of student learning because it is not dependent on any one method of assessment. Innovative assessments allow for the fact that all individuals have
strengths and weaknesses, by assessing an individual’s performance across a range of skills a more balanced and reliable assessment can be obtained. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!
3. Innovative assessment on the whole adopts a more positive approach to education; by spreading the assessment net more widely, it provides students with a range of opportunities to demonstrate how much
they understand (Ramsden, 1992), rather than the somewhat negative approach of how little.
4. Innovative assessment is usually formative and as such is more likely to facilitate effective, well motivated student learning. Providing timely and constructive feedback allows misunderstandings to be detected
and cleared up, and students are able to make improvements where necessary. This process helps maintain student motivation, enabling them to learn more steadily and fluently. If students genuinely don’t
know what they are doing wrong, as they are never informed, then this can lead to frustration and a loss of interest in the subject.
5. A range of different techniques and methods should stimulate both staff and student interest. Variety is the spice of life! [[MORE INFO REDGUIDE]]
6. Students learn and are assessed upon a much greater variety of skills and in a number of different situations. This should produce more rounded and more employable graduates. Assessments may include
students demonstrating that they ‘know how to’ rather than just ‘know about’ (Race, 1994).
7. Innovative assessment methods are usually more realistic and relevant, involving role plays, simulation and work placements; students develop a better understanding of how their specific skills and knowledge
can be applied both inside and outside the academic environment.
8. Innovative assessment is generally regarded as a possible strategy for facilitating a ‘deep’ rather than a ‘surface’ approach to learning (Marton and Säljö, 1990; Boyd and Cowan, 1985; Ramsden, 1992). Brown
and Dove (1993) consulted staff from four different universities who were already using self and peer assessments, the staff reported: “students using higher levels of reflection, developing a questioning and self
analytic approach to their professional practice and engaging in deep rather than surface learning” (Brown and Dove, 1993)