The future of assessment in Higher Education

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/relieve.26.1.17323

Keywords:

Assessment, Assessment as Learning, Sustainable Assessment, Assessment Tasks, Feedback, Participation, Assessment Tools, Technology Enhanced Assessment, Higher Education

Abstract

The pending challenge of assessment in higher education, although also at other educational levels, continues to be its effective link with student learning. Students' strategic learning could and should be achieved by the assessment. This paper arises from the attempt to answer the question about what would be the future of assessment in higher education and it is presented under the form of a collaborative text that was elaborated by all the authors who sign it. This contribution offers a joint reflection by various authors from different contexts and regions on three essential aspects. First, the need for reflection and a change in assessment based on current trends that are demonstrating their timeliness and validity is highlighted. A second issue focuses on the value of technology for the changes that are taking place on assessment, but as long as it adapts to its principles and, therefore, does not imply a return to the last century under the dominance of models today widely overcome. Together with the use of technology-enhanced assessment, the interrelationship between assessment and learning implies to redesign assessment practices, to incorporate proposals from the fields of social justice and sustainable assessment, the design of authentic assessment tasks, to promote feedback and encourage students’ participation. In brief, to collaborate to develop the students' evaluative judgment in order to achieve free, socially responsible and fair citizens.

Author Biographies

María Soledad Ibarra-Sáiz, UNESCO Chair on Evaluation and Assessment, Innovation and Excellence in Education. EVALfor Research Group. University of Cadiz.

María Soledad Ibarra Sáiz.  Senior Lecturer in Educational Assessment and Evaluation at University of Cadiz. Director of UNESCO Chair on Evaluation and Assessment, Innovation and Excellence in Education. Director of EVALfor Research Group–SEJ509  Assessment & Evaluation in Training Contexts  from the Andalusian Programme on Research, Development and Innovation (PAIDI). She develops her research mainly in the field of assessment and evaluation in higher education. She has been principal researcher of more than 10 European, international and national projects, whose results have been published in various articles, book chapters and contributions to international conferences. She is currently the main co-researcher of the FLOASS Project - Learning outcomes and learning analytics in higher education: An action framework from sustainable assessment (RTI2018-093630-B-I00) in which 6 Spanish universities participate.

Gregorio Rodríguez-Gómez, UNESCO Chair on Evaluation and Assessment, Innovation and Excellence in Education. EVALfor Research Group. University of Cadiz.

Gregorio Rodríguez Gómez. Professor of Educational Research Method at the University of Cádiz. He is the coordinator of the strategic area "Studies and research in assessment and evaluation" of the UNESCO Chair on Evaluation and Assessment, Innovation and Excellence in Education. Founding member of the EVALfor Research Group –SEJ509 Assessment and evaluation in training contexts . His research interest is focused on research methods and assessment and evaluation in higher education. He is currently the main co-researcher of the FLOASS Project - Learning outcomes and learning analytics in higher education: A framework for action from sustainable assessment (RTI2018-093630-B-I00). Author of articles, book chapters and contributions to international conferences. He has been President of the Interuniversity Association for Pedagogical Research (AIDIPE). He is currently President of the RED-U Spanish University Teaching Network.

David Boud, Deakin University (Melbourne). University of Technology in Sydney. Middlesex University (London)

David Boud  is Alfred Deakin Professor and Director of the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning at Deakin University (Melbourne) and Emeritus Professor at the University of Technology in Sydney. He is also a Professor of Work and Learning at Middlesex University (London). He has written several publications on teaching, learning and assessment in higher and professional education. His current work focuses on the areas of assessment for learning in higher education, academic formation and learning in the workplace. He is one of the most highly cited scholars worldwide in the field of higher education. He has been a pioneer in the development learning-centred approaches to assessment across the disciplines focused on learning, especially in building assessment skills for the long-term learning ( Developing Evaluative Judgement in Higher Education , Routledge 2018) and designing new approaches to feedback ( Feedback in Higher and Professional Education , Routledge, 2013).  Re-imagining University Assessment in a Digital World , by the publisher Springer, will come out during 2020

Tijs Rotsaert, Ghent University

Tijs Rotsaert. PhD in Educational Studies. Post-doctoral assistant in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University. He is coordinator of SIG1 – Evaluation and Assessment from the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI). His research is carried out in the field of formative and sustainable assessment, mainly on peer assessment and feedback in higher and secondary education.

Sally Brown, Independent consultant (UK).

Sally Brown. Independent consultant in learning, teaching and assessment. Professor Emeritus at Leeds Beckett University in which she has been Academic Vice-Chancellor. She is also a Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University and previously at the universities of Plymouth, Robert Gordon, South Wales and Liverpool John Moores, and at the Australian universities James Cook, Central Queensland and the Sunshine Coast. She has honorary doctorates from the universities of Plymouth, Kingston, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Napier, and Lincoln. She is an honorary member of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA), and an honorary Senior Member of National Teaching .

Marta Lorena Salinas Salazar, University of Antioquia, Medellín (Colombia).

Marta Lorena Salinas Salazar . Master in Sociology of Education, University of Antioquia. Senior Lecturer (retired) at University of Antioquia. Advisor for the National Council of Accreditation (Colombia), Member of the research group - Institutional Educational Projects -PEI-. She has been Dean of the Faculty of Education at University of Antioquia. Adviser for Quality at the Municipal Secretary of Education, Medellín. Coordinator of Institutional and Social Evaluation Programmes at the Faculty of Education. Her research interest is focused on the area of teacher evaluation and training. Academic advisor on Assessment and Evaluation area for public and private universities in Colombia.

Hilda Mar Rodríguez Gómez, University of Antioquia, Medellín (Colombia).

Hilda Mar Rodríguez Gómez . Professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of Antioquia (Colombia). She is researcher of the Diverser Group (pedagogy and cultural diversity). She coordinates the master's degrees in Pedagogy and cultural diversity and democracy and school coexistence at the Faculty of Education. She has participated in various research projects related to quality of education, teacher training, school libraries, permanence with equity in the university, assessment for learning. She participates in various groups of study on pedagogy and sexual diversity in schools, from which they advise educational institutions in training on these topics.

References

Ashford-Rowe, K., Herrington, J., & Brown, C. (2014). Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(2), 205–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.819566

Boud, D. (2019). Developing evaluative judgement within courses. 7th International Assessment in Higher Education Conference. 26 and 27 June. Manchester, UK.

Boud, D., Ajjawi, R., Dawson, P., & Tai, J. (Eds.). (2018). Developing Evaluative Judgement in Higher Education. Assessment for Knowing and Producing Quality Work. Sage.

Boud, D., & Soler, R. (2016). Sustainable assessment revisited. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(3), 400–413.https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1018133

Brown, S. (2015). Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Higher Education. Global Perspectives. Macmillan International Higher Education.

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Earl, L. (2013). Assessment as learning. Using classroom assessment to maximize student learning. Sage.

Ibarra-Sáiz, M. S., Rodríguez-Gómez, G., & Boud, D. (2020). Developing student competence through peer assessment: the role of feedback, self-regulation and evaluative judgement. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00469-2

McArthur, J. (2018). Assessment for social justice: Perspectives and practices within higher education. Bloomsbury Academic.

Nicol, D., Thomson, A., & Breslin, C. (2014). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: a peer review perspective. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(1), 102–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.795518

Rodríguez-Gómez, G., & Ibarra-Sáiz, M. S. (2015). Assessment as learning and empowerment: Towards sustainable learning in higher education. In M. Peris-Ortiz & J. M. Merigó Lindahl (Eds.), Sustainable learning in higher education. Developing competencies for the global marketplace (pp. 1–20). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10804-9_1

Rowe, A. D. (2017). Feelings about feedback: the role of emotions in assessment for learning. In D. Carless, S. M. Bridges, C. K. Y. Chan, & R. Glofcheski (Eds.), Scaling up Assessment for Learning in Higher Education (pp. 159–172). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3045-1_11

Sambell, K., McDowell, L., & Montgomery, C. (2013). Assessment for Learning in Higher Education. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203818268

Timmis, S., Broadfoot, P., Sutherland, R., & Oldfield, A. (2016). Rethinking assessment in a digital age: opportunities, challenges and risks. British Educational Research Journal, 42(3), 454–476. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3215

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Published

2020-10-20

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 1 (2020): Monográfico: Evaluación en la Educación Superior

Section

Special Section

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