New Approach To e-Assessment Wins Medal
A new approach to e-assessment, which provides prompt feedback to students, was celebrated at the University of Hertfordshire 2010 Awards Ceremonies yesterday (16 November 2010) at the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban.
Dr Mark Russell, Deputy Director of the University’s Blended Learning Unit, was awarded a Chancellor’s Medal for Outstanding Achievement in a Doctoral Research Programme for his PhD submission. His thesis, entitled A Personalised Assessment Programme in Engineering Education, describes an educationally effective and resource efficient approach to e-assessment.
Dr Russell devised the original assessment programme for a core engineering module at the University of Hertfordshire. The module had high failure rates, attributed in part to students struggling with some of the mathematical concepts.
“We realised that we needed to address this challenging area, particularly in view of the fact that student numbers had grown considerably - as a result of which there was less time for individual tuition and feedback,” said Dr Russell. “Using the approach developed we were able to create many of the situations that support learning. This resulted in students engaging regularly with their studies, problem solving with each other, sharing conceptions and misconceptions and ultimately receiving prompt and personalised feedback.”
Dr Russell designed, developed, tested and implemented a new assessment programme that provided students with unique weekly tasks. The tasks were formally assessed and contributed towards the students’ marks for the module.
To ensure the viability of the assessment programme, bespoke computer tools were developed to create, collect and mark the tasks, and to provide feedback to the students. The implementation was evaluated through an exploration of the impact of the assessment programme on student support, teaching and student learning.
Over the four-year period of his PhD research, Dr Russell developed an e-assessment toolkit which he used to assess and provide feedback to engineering students, which resulted in an increase in the module pass rate.
The toolkit was then developed further and applied to modules in the Business School, and the Schools of Life Sciences, Pharmacy, and Engineering and Technology at the University of Hertfordshire and has attracted attention from around the world.
“This system provides the much prized prompt feedback that people need,” said Dr Russell. “It allows us to collect responses and provide feedback at the click of a button, which means that students get feedback the day after they submit. It frees up academics to spend time doing the tasks they are good at – like teaching.”
Dr Russell is among the 4,500 new graduates who are invited to celebrate academic success in St Albans this week. The annual Awards ceremony for the University of Hertfordshire took place at the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban.
The Chancellor’s Medal for Outstanding Achievement in a Doctoral Research Programme celebrates excellence in research in PhDs and Doctoral research programmes and to recognise the quality research being carried out in the research institutes. The award honours outstanding research of value in its field.
ENDS
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