Effective Practice with e-Assessment: An overview of ... - Jisc

Looking to the horizon
Much that has already happened in the field of e-assessment
would not have been predicted ten years ago, so how can we
envisage changes to come in the next decade? This section
questions some assumptions about e-assessment and
explores the most likely developments on the horizon for
practice with e-assessment.
Which aspects of e-assessment will be
established as mainstream practice by 2017?
In the assessment of the 14-19 curriculum, much will change.
Traditional paper-based summative assessments will
continue to migrate to computer delivery, led by new
qualifications, such as the cross-curricular Specialised
Diplomas, currently under development in England.
Increasingly, aspects of courses that lend themselves to
objective question types, or that use assessments based on
visualisations of concepts or procedures, will be completed
online. These strategies are likely to be combined with shortanswer
questions, marked by computer and checked by
humans, to probe the learner’s ability to form links between
areas of knowledge.
The value placed on traditional literacy is not likely to yield.
Nonetheless, assessment will become a more varied and
richer experience which will include some computer-based
or computer-assisted assessment in tandem with other
approaches. All 16 to 19-year olds will have used technology
as part of their assessed programme of study and will be
proficient in its use. Evidence of their creative achievements
or wider key or core skills is likely to be required in
multimedia formats, either in an e-portfolio record of
achievement, or as part of a formal assessment. Dependence
by UCAS on A-levels as a determinant of entry to higher
education is also likely to be reduced by 2017, in part due to
the availability of information about applicants’ interests,
achievements and performance provided in e-portfolios.
Universities, driven by increased participation in higher
education courses, will continue to undertake research and
development activities related to e-assessment, including
some groundbreaking work in the use of virtual world
scenarios for summative and formative assessments.
Written assignments will routinely be submitted and
marked electronically to combat plagiarism and to provide
retrievable evidence of previous levels of attainment.
Mobile and audiovisual technologies will play a more
prominent role in the capturing of evidence from the
workplace or from enquiry-based and work-based learning, in
many cases for submission via an e-portfolio. The assessment
of professional skills – for example, in clinical practice in
medical and pharmaceutical sciences, health and social care
– will have been advanced by the exploration of digital video,
video conferencing and mobile communication devices to
improve the validity and authenticity of practice-based
assessments.
What will be the key achievements by 2017?
The introduction of technology will have prompted a greater
understanding of how to design effective assessment
strategies. By 2017, a drive for inclusivity and personalisation
in assessment will have challenged the ‘one-size-fits-all’
assumption that dominated assessment practices in the
20th century.
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