Effective Principals 2020 | Ms. Shanthi Menon, Founder Principal of The Deens Academy

Managing High Stakes – Assessments And Exams During The Current Crisis

Crisis or opportunity? To me, this seems like a period  of  boundless imagination.  Learning continues unceasingly. And as long as this is so, there has to  be an estimation of the same,  to ascertain the subsequent process or phase. 

Assessment is a fundamental feedback mechanism in education, allowing all stakeholders of the learning process to understand what is being learned and what turns the learning curve is taking.

The whole convenience of online assessments being accessible to all, even if there are geographical barriers or constraints of time and space, is the largest opportunity that one needs to perceive in the situation.

In addition, online assessment provides for a lot of time being saved because of its innate ability to churn out immediate feedback. 

In fact, feedback has the ability to be more interactive and personalised, which enables the learner to reflect and correct gaps. Further, there is also the advantage of tasks and activities being recorded for future reference.

In the present context, design of assessment starts with curriculum design.

The primary objective of assessment has to be shifted to a more comprehensive one; and one has to factor in the tools/ technology to be utilised and the kind of methods of assessment, integrating the time factor too.

Assessments have to evaluate a student’s understanding by comparing his or her achievement against a class or benchmark / standard, which comprises the broad-based learning outcomes.

Assessments could be an evaluation of a student’s comprehension and understanding of a skill or concept. Assessments can be synchronous using platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

There are numerous platforms in the market today, all of which are aligned to enabling synchronous assessments and instant evaluation.

Assessments could also be held asynchronous using tools like Google classrooms and other platforms, which can be used to capture record student tasks.

TCS has today enabled an AI based platform, TCS iON which enables secure and fair assessments to be conducted.  One solution to cancelled high stake examinations is formative continuous assessment. 

This is more inclusive as it identifies learner strengths and weaknesses based on gauging ongoing learning progress .

This is done through online short quizzes, instant polls, oral questioning or even as peer assessment, to check factual knowledge.

Online discussion forums, webinars delivered by students, live demonstration, simulation, or experiment presented by the student using video enabling platforms, moderated on transparent rubrics are also very popular for assessing conceptual knowledge.

But, all of this has to incorporate the angle of reliability- scores should be stable and consistent. Teachers will need to use a variety of assessment tasks, lending to different situations, to gather a range of information which provides a clearer picture of the student’s learning profile.

This data combined with evidence-based assessment and submissions of projects which comprise internal assessments, could be accepted as criteria by universities/colleges, after due moderation, for admissions into their courses. 

As far as summative assessments and entrance tests are concerned, on the virtual mode, again the issues of validity and reliability, have to be factored in. Essays and presentations are great modes to assess the conceptual knowledge of a student. 

Here again reviewing the student’s past assessments / learning portfolio , along with the exam scores would be a reliable evaluation.

Having said this, there is an angle of challenge, which requires mindfulness, while setting online assessments.

The first of these being, a large part of what is behind the speaker/student is not something that can be perceived, and determining whether it is the student who is submitting the assessment and therefore monitoring for fair practice, is a challenge.

That is the main reason why most online courses still require students  to physically sit at a specified space for an examination, even when the whole teaching and learning processes are conducted online.

The other challenge is the fact that different subjects and courses require different assessment methods and therefore, supporting technology and appropriate functions.

“Crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.”- Jawaharlal Nehru When, but now, to think and change the obsession with marks for a more credible assessment system!

Effective Principals 2020 | Ms. Shanthi Menon, Founder Principal of The Deens Academy

 651,559 total views