Formative e-assessment: case stories, design patterns, and

future scenarios

Harvey MellarLondon Knowledge Lab

Institute of Education, University of London

http://feasst.wlecentre.ac.uk/

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/projects/feasst.aspx

Overview

Short term, scoping study commissioned by JISC, and supported by the Centre

for Excellence in Work-based Learning for Education Professionals

• Methodology

• Desk research

• Literature review• Comparing frameworks

• Five Practical Enquiry Days

• Combination of collaborative reflection, report back from teams, and guest plenaries

• Launch day, three Planet workshops, developers' day

(Adopted and adapted the Planet Project's Participatory Methodology for

Practical Design Patterns - http://patternlanguagenetwork.wordpress.com)

• Wiki for collaborative authoring of patterns http://purl.org/planet/

Groups.FormativeEAssessment/

WHAT IS FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT?

A definition

“An assessment functions formatively when evidence about student achievement elicited by the assessment is interpreted and used to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions that would have been made in the absence of that evidence”

(Dylan Wiliam)

Five strategies

Feed up Feed back Feed forward

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 5-31.

Moments of contingency

Teachers design their instruction to yield evidence about student achievement, by carefully crafting hinge-point questions, for

example. These create ‘moments of contingency’, in which the direction of the instruction will depend on student responses. Teachers provide feedback that engages students, make time in class for students to work on improvement, and activate students as instructional resources for one another.

(Leahy, Lyon, Thompson and Wiliam, 2005)

PARTICIPATORY METHODOLOGY FOR PRACTICAL DESIGN PATTERNS

8

Case Stories Workshop

Engender collaborative reflection among practitioners by a structured process of sharing stories of successful practice

9

Pattern Mining Workshop

Shift from anecdotes to transferable design knowledge by identifying commonalities across case stories, and capturing them in a semi-structured form

The core template

• Context– Where, when, who (all the things you can’t change)

• Problem (pick one!)– We want to do A under condition B but are

constrained by C

• Solution

(in any order that

works for you)C o n t e x t

Problem Solution

When, Where, Who

What are we trying to achieve / solve?

Cookbook: ingredients, procedure, expected

outcomes

11

Future Scenarios Workshop

Validate design patterns by applying them to novel real problems in real contexts

CASES

Creature of the week (Judy Robertson)

Situation

Large class (138), first and second year computer science students. Assignment: create a virtual pet in Second Life

Task Engage and motivate the students show examples of good work which others could

learn from show students their work is valued. build a sense of community.

http://purl.org/planet/Cases/creatureoftheweek

CoMo (Niall Winters, Yishay Mor)

Situation Royal Veterinary College Hospital rotations as part of the training

Task Allow students to capture critical incidents in text

and image Support sharing of clinical experiences and co-

reflection

http://purl.org/planet/Cases/CoMo

Open mentor (Denise Whitelock)

http://purl.org/planet/Cases/OpenMentor

PATTERNS

Try Once, Refine Once

(Aliy Fowler)

http://purl.org/planet/Patterns/TryOnceRefineOnce

ProblemLack of immediate feedback for students leads to fossilisation of errors and misconceptions

providing immediate feedback in an iterative fashion can also hinder effective learning since students are able to "grope their way" step-by-step to a correct solution without necessarily having to think about each answer as a whole.

Context

Class size Large (30-300)

Content Skills\facts

Mode of instruction Blended\on-line. Computer tested

Solution• Students are posed questions of a type which elicit answers that

can contain multiple errors

• If a student's answer is entirely correct a mark of 100% is awarded

• If their answer contains errors, a mark is given which contributes to a percentage of the total mark for the question, along with detailed - yet generic - feedback on the location and type of the errors

• Students are then permitted a second attempt in which to refine their answer

• The mark for the 2nd attempt contributes to remaining percentage of the total mark for the question

• Feedback on any remaining errors is also given, along with the correct answer(s)

• No further attempts are permitted

Feedback on

Feedback

(Linda McGuigan)

http://purl.org/planet/Patterns/FeedbackonFeedback

Good feedback should

Alert learners to their weaknesses. Diagnose the causes and dynamics of these. Include operational suggestions to improve the

learning experience. Address socio-emotive factors.

Tutors know this, but are pressed for time, or are not aware of their feedback strategies

Large teaching organisations are not equipped to provide tutors with personal feedback on their teaching

Problem

Context

Large scale, technology supported, graded courses many tutors instructing many students

Feedback is mediated by technology that allows it to be captured and processed in real time

Topic of study is subject to both grading and formative feedback

Solution

Embed a mechanism in the learning and teaching system that regularly captures tutor feedback, analyses it, and presents them with graphical representation of the types of feedback they have given. Ideally, this should also include constructive advice as to how to shift from less to more effective forms.

In computer supported environments (e.g. VLEs), this mechanism could be integrated into the system, providing tutors with immediate analysis of their feedback, as well as long-term aggregates.

SCENARIO

High achievers

When using Try Once Refine Once, there is a risk that high-achievers do not receive feedback

So

• Use Showcase Learning to celebrate students’ work and provoke feedback from peers and tutors

• Use Feedback on Feedback to alert tutors to the problem

AUGMENTED DOMAIN MAP

Reminder of the five strategies

Feed up Feed back Feed forward

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 5-31.

REPORTS

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/projects/scopingfinalreport.pdf

Practical design patterns for teaching and learning with

technology

A book for Sense Publisher's 'Technology Enhanced Learning' series

Editors: Yishay Mor (London Knowledge Lab), Steven Warburton (King's College London) and Niall Winters (London Knowledge Lab)

http://www.practicalpatternsbook.org/Home