Gregorio Rodríguez-Gómez

Assessment as Learning and Empowerment: Towards Sustainable Learning in Higher Education

This chapter introduces the concept of assessment as learning and empowerment. This approach is based on three fundamental challenges: (a) student participation in the assessment of their own learning; (b) feedforward, which focuses on the delivery of information about the results of assessment that can be used in a proactive way; and (c) producing high quality assessment tasks. These three challenges can be subdivided into ten separate principles that, when operationalized by university tutors, enable them to introduce innovative practice or procedures that influence the way both staff and students experience assessment.

What are we missing? Spanish lecturers’ perceptions of their assessment practices

Many studies have explored alternative assessment practices that focus on students and their learning. In this paper, we present a survey study that analyses lecturers’ perceptions of their assessment practices. Special attention is paid to assessment tasks developed to monitor student learning and those designed to promote active student participation in the assessment process. Lecturers’ perceptions of the importance, perceived competence and implementation of such assessment tasks are considered throughout the paper. Responses showed that lecturers assigned importance to the monitoring of student learning and felt reasonably capable of implementing assessment tasks for that purpose. Much less importance was placed on student participation in such assessments; lecturers perceived their abilities to implement assessment tasks to promote student participation to be poor and they rarely used such tasks.

Learning-oriented e-assessment: the effects of a training and guidance programme on lecturers’ perceptions

Various frameworks that acknowledge the importance of assessment as a core aspect of the learning process have been proposed to enhance life-long learning and promote participative strategies. In this context, learning-oriented e-assessment was developed to enhance learning through assessment in a technology-mediated context. Using a quantitative–qualitative mixed research method, the current study aimed to analyse the effects of a learning-oriented e-assessment training and guidance programme on university lecturers’ perceptions of the importance of assessment, their competence in assessment and their actual use of assessment, and to consider lecturers’ experience and perception when implementing learning-oriented e-assessment in one of their courses. The results of the quantitative research showed a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test measures in the competence and use criteria for the following four categories: ‘assessment planning and design’, ‘monitoring of student learning’, ‘participation of students in the assessment process’ and ‘improvement and changes to the assessment process’. The qualitative results support the quantitative outcomes, providing some insight into lecturers’ perception of the experience.

Monitoring and information on skills development at university: a multiple-case study

Within the context of assessment, when feedback and feedforward are concerned both the speed of their delivery and their comprehensibility are considered crucial. This paper, set within the framework of an evaluative approach to assessment as learning and empowerment, presents a multiple case study which seeks to evaluate a proposed Skills Development Monitoring System (SISDECOM). This system is based on the specification of assessment processes and the use of technological tools as means to facilitate and systematize the monitoring of skills development by university tutors and students. The study will be carried out in two Spanish universities, involve 300 university students and focus on six different modules from four degree courses. Techniques such as Cross-Case Synthesis (CCS) and LogicModels will be employed to analyze the data to respond to the research questions posed. In short, using technological means such as the Gescompeval and EvalCOMIX web-based programmes integrated within a Moodle environment, the study aims to extend the implementation of the approach of assessment as learning and empowerment.

Towards Sustainable Assessment: ICT as a Facilitator of Self- and Peer Assessment

This study describes an e-assessment experience undertaken at a Spanish university. Students taking the Project Management module undertook e-self-assessment and e-peer assessment, using the web service EvalCOMIX®. The aim of the study was to identify to what extent students valued technological resources designed for assessment and their opinion of participative forms of e-assessment. Four assessment tasks were designed to undertake during one semester. For each task students had to hand in a piece of work or undertake an assignment to be assessed. The students were asked their opinion on this experience. The results of this survey among 108 students showed, firstly, that they valued e-assessment highly. Secondly, it showed that students found these e-assessment formats very useful for the development of skills such as the application of knowledge, arguing a point, problem solving, analysing information, communication, autonomous learning, ethical considerations, creativity, group working, critical and analytical judgement and decision-making.

DINNO ® : An Innovative Technological Tool for Empowerment in Assessment

This chapter introduces DINNO®, a technological tool for designing innovations in assessment, and presents the opinions on its usefulness and benefits of 60 university tutors who used the tool during a training programme. The DINNO® tool was developed in order to guide the decision making of university tutors when initiating a process of innovation in their assessment practice, so that they focus on the key aspects that educational research has shown to be relevant and innovative in the field of assessment. The tutors’ opinions were collected through an online questionnaire and the results demonstrate the usefulness of this tool for planning innovation in assessment practice.

Scalable authentic assessment of collaborative work assignments in wikis

Wikis are appropriate tools for deploying authentic assessment experiences for learning and work scenarios in which a group of users are asked to develop a shared task. However, when the number of wiki users increases, the number of contributions can grow at a pace whereby accurately assessing them becomes a complex and non-scalable task. While different quantitative approaches have been shown to be scalable, they are usually coarse-grained and provide limited feedback about the assessment. This work proposes a scalable assessment methodology for wiki-based tasks, based on qualitative self- and peer assessment of wiki contributions. The methodology is implemented using a software tool and is applied as part of an undergraduate course, complementing a quantitative assessment approach. Positive evidence on the scalability of the method and how it implements a more fine-grained qualitative assessment than the regular quantitative approach is found, providing indicators for assessing both individual and group generic skills.

Assessment literacy through serious games in virtual learning environments

This paper focuses on analysing the influence of serious games on the assessment literacy of Higher Education students. The study is contextualised in a public call research project in which the DevalS course is developed and implemented – How to assess learning– a blended learning course featuring the use of technological resources for which 2 serious games were designed, One day with EVA(cc) y EVONG – Evaluation in action(cc). In this research, a quasi-experimental postest design is followed through the survey technique, determined in two online questionnaires through which the perception is gathered on its competence level and influence in the literary assessment of first-year university students belonging to 4 public universities of Spain who conducted the DevalS Course. The results, based on 196 responses, Show an increase in the level of knowledge in assessment perceived by the students, demonstrating that serious games are a valuable tool for this purpose.