Keynote: Medway Festival of Learning and Teaching 10th September 2020 Debbie Holley and Anne Quinney

1. Reflections on transforming assessment and
feedback: complexity and collaboration.
Debbie Holley, Professor of Learning Innovation
and
Anne Quinney, University Lead for Pedagogical Innovations
in Assessment and Feedback
Bournemouth University
Keynote: Medway 'Creative and Inclusive Assessment and
Feedback' Festival September 10th 2020

2. Anne Quinney
• Senior Fellow of the HEA (Advance HE)
• Leads the institutional Assessment and
Feedback policies and practice for
Learning and Teaching
• Recently Programme Leader and unit
leader for the PGCert/PGDip and MA
Education Practice
• Interests, in addition to assessment &
feedback, include narrative and visual
research methods
Debbie Holley
• National Teaching Fellow
• Interested in digital assessment and
feedback
• Led the university Centre for promoting
excellence in learning and teaching
• Led the validation of our MA Education
Practice, which included a specialist unit
on Assessment and Feeback
Please be aware …. Cough, voice loss and background noise
warning.
Anne is asthmatic and has builders in doing major renovations!

3. Audience
participation
invitation
What are the hot topics or sticky
problems in assessment and
feedback at your institution?
Please respond in the chat facility. We will collate the
anonymised responses, write a blog post and share it
back to be disseminated to conference participants

4. Assessment
and feedback
drivers
National drivers for Assessment &
Feedback
• National Student Survey (NSS)
• The Teaching Excellence and
Student Outcomes Framework
(TEF)
• The ongoing ‘tilt to online’ as a
response to Covid-19 (see
Nordmann et al 2020)

5. The challenge…..
Assessment practices in most universities have
not kept pace with the vast changes in the
context, aims and structure of higher
education. They can no longer do justice to
the outcomes we expect from a university
education in relation to wide-ranging
knowledge, skills and employability. (Ball et al
2012 p7)

6. Is a radical
rethink
overdue?
Is a radical rethink overdue?
• The HEA recommended "a radical rethink
of assessment practices and regulations"
and a "holistic and proactive approach (Ball
et al 2012 p8)
• "the greatest potential to improve
student learning is a shift in the balance of
summative and formative assessment (Ball
et all, 2012 p9)

7. The
Bournemouth
University
response
A year of Assessment and Feedback in 2017/2018 was launched
which included events, resources, and policy re-design:
Fundamental review and revision of the Principles of Assessment
Design policy
Worked in partnership with our Students Union, Academic Quality
colleagues and Faculties
Hosted an Assessment & Feedback Conference
Dai Hounsell, an internationally renowned expert, joined us as a
Visiting Professor
Led workshops, and Masterclasses for credit and CPD
An assessment & feedback pocket guide produced for all staff
Curriculum design workshops were promoted to inform the
programme review and revalidation cycle

8. Key principles:
• Adopt assessment for learning (Sambell et al
2012) as the key principle for policy and
practice
• Promote of a broader menu of innovative
assessment tasks
• Reduce the volume and number of
assessment tasks
• Recognise the role that Technology
Enhanced Learning (TEL) can play

9. Academic dilemma 1:
Choosing an appropriate
assessment method:
How many different assessment methods are used on the
programmes you are familiar with?
Please respond with a number in the chat box

10. Assessment & Feedback Toolkit Headings

11. 50 ways - 4 types

12. 50 ways - 4 types in more detail

13. Aligned assessment
Matching learning outcomes (graduate attributes)
to innovative assessment options are emphasised at
curriculum design and review phases

14. Academic dilemma 2:
Students don’t always
understand how to use
feedback
What ideas do you use to help address this?
Please respond in the chat box

15. ‘Flipping’ feedback
• A shift from retrospective feedback to
prospective feedforward
• Reconfiguring teaching and learning activities to
create more opportunities for ‘real-time’ or
‘just-in-time’ feedback for learning
• Embed opportunities for giving, receiving and
responding to feedback
These approaches emphasise feedback as a dialogue and an
exchange of ideas, not only the comments on summative
assignments.

16. ‘Real-time’ feedback – online or on campus
• ‘Boot-grit’ feedback at the end of session: what didn’t you
understand; what needs more explanation. Responses,
explanations, clarification can be posted in the VLE
• In class quizzes and activities can provide rapid feedback on
learning. Breaking into pairs or groups for ‘peer instruction’ can
be used to discuss then revise answers. Team-based learning
works well.
• Adopt the ‘flipped classroom’. In-class time for engagement,
collaboration, understanding is maximised.

17. Feedback information for students
(REAP project www.reap.ac.uk)

18. Assessment Literacy

19. Exploring Peer Feedback in depth (Hounsell 2020)
Triggers for reflection……
Choose one of the headings from the
Peer Feedback Resource and note your
response
The headings include:
• How do students benefit from peer
feedback?
• Does peer feedback have to involve
giving a grade?
• What forms does peer feedback
take?

20. Authentic
Assessments designed to prepare students for what they
do next, using technology they will use in their careers
Accessible
Assessments designed with an accessibility-first principle
Appropriately automated
A balance found of automated and human marking to
deliver maximum benefit to students
Continuous
Assessment data used to explore opportunities for
continuous assessment to improve the learning
experience
Secure
Authoring detection and biometric authentication
adopted for identification and remote proctoring
JISC 2020
Harnessing the power of new technologies
technologies

21. How might you use technology to support this?
Please respond in the chat box
Academic dilemma 3:
How to adopt authentic
learning experiences?

22. Response: Augmented
Reality/Virtual Reality
• Heidi Singleton: doctoral work with a simulated
diabetic patient
• Virtual Technologies in Nurse Education :
• Results from her Randomised Control Trial
demonstrated that students retain the knowledge
longer using technology!
There is a youtube clip demo here

23. Reflections on transforming pedagogic policy and practice
Underpinned by a collaborative and trans-disciplinary approach
Used the triple helix model of educational innovation (Hutchings and
Quinney 2015, Quinney et al 2017)
But….
Not everyone will embrace change and some will actively resist
Our solution was a shared vision, a robust team approach, the need for
ongoing horizon scanning and the application of soft skills to deliver
‘optimal disruption’

24. Ball S et al (2012) A marked improvement: transforming assessment in higher education. York: HEA
Boud D and Falkinov N. (2006) Aligning assessment with long term learning. Assessment
and evaluationin higher education. 38(6) p698-712
Hounsell D. Flipping feedback. Undated. Wise Assessment Briefing 12. University of Hong Kong.
https://www.cetl.hku.hk/teaching-learning-cop/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/wise-assessment-briefing12.pdf
Hutchings M and Quinney A, (2015). The flipped classroom, disruptive pedagogies, enabling technologies and wicked problems: responding to the
‘bomb in the basement’. Electronic Journal of E-learning. 13(2) p106-119
Jessop T. (2017). Inspiring transformation through TESTA’s programme approach. In Carless D et al eds. Scaling up assessment for learning in higher education. Springer.
Nicol D and McFarlane D (2006) Formative assessment and self-regulated learning; a model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education. 32(2)
p199-21.
Nordmann E, Horlin C, Hutchison J, Murray J-A, Robson L, Seery MK, and MacKay JRD. (2020). 10 simple rules for supporting a temporary online pivot in higher education.
PsyArXiv Preprints
https://psyarxiv.com/qdh25
Price M. undated. Promoting student assessment literacy. Wise Assessment Briefing 7. University of Hong Kong.
https://www.cetl.hku.hk/teaching-learning-cop/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/wise-assessment-briefing7.pdf
Quinney A, Lamont C, Biggins D and Holley D. (2017). Optimising disruptive approaches: extending academic roles and identities in higher education. Journal of Learning
~Development in Higher Education. Issue 12.
Sambell K, McDowell L, and Montgomery, C. (2012). Assessment for learning in higher education. Routledge.

25. Useful resources
• The Bournemouth University Assessment and Feedback
toolkit. (This externally facing version is incomplete as
work halted to prioritise developments for the internal Toolkit).
• Sally Brown’s blog https://sally-brown.net
• FLIE blog https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/flie/
• Winstone N and Carless D. 2019. Designing effective feedback processes in Higher Education: A learning-
focused approach.