It's time e-assessment grew up

When I had the opportunity to speak to another group of University senior staff last week, I heard another set of stories about how they had been let down by technology that claimed to be able to support rigorous assessment, yet when it was used it either proved to be too inflexible or provided the student with too much control.


It is not a surprise that this was their experience given that an organisation like JISC on the one hand acknowledge that for ‘for technology-enhanced assessment to be effective, pedagogically sound developments need to be supported by robust and appropriate technology’ ‘(Effective assessment in a digital age; JISC) yet at the same time they ‘showcase’ an e-portfolio that proudly claims that it provides ‘a Personal Learning Space owned and controlled by the user.’

How can these two statements co-exist together? If learners own and control their learning space this surely means they can chose what external feedback can be included in their portfolio and what can be discarded. It might also mean they can make their own assessments? Of course it is good practice that they self-assess their work but an external person must have the final say.

A strong pedagogy is clearly based on the notion that through it learners will gain skills and knowledge, however for quality assurance of that process to be credible it is important that all comments are captured good and bad. Indeed when I act as an Internal Verifier I state my expectation that I will see assessors deferring evidence because that is one indicator of effective assessment taking place. Furthermore electronic assessment makes it very easy to see that this behaviour is in place.

It is important that a student feels strong ownership of their portfolio but that ownership needs to extend to including comments on their work from external people whether they be good and bad and furthermore the learning institution has to be totally assured these comments are captured. E-assessment systems need to be sophisticated enough to provide this quality assurance.