2009
Below you will be able to find a list of presentations from the conference:
Keynotes
Convivial Learning in a Tangled World
John Connell, Education Business Development Manager, Cisco Systems
Putting the ‘Assess’ in e-Assessment
Professor Dai Hounsell, Vice-Principal for Academic Enhancement, University of Edinburgh
‘Are We There Yet?’ - Tracking the Development of e-Assessment in Scotland’s Colleges
Martyn Ware, Head of e-Assessment and Learning, Scottish Qualifications Authority
Parallel Sessions
Using Games for Evidencing Workplace Skills
Mhairi McAlpine, Project Manager, Scottish Qualifications Authority
Wikis, Webs & Writing(s)
Neil Winton, Head of English, Perth Academy
Accessible e-Assessment
David Sloan, University of Dundee; John Kleeman, Founder and Chairman, Questionmark
Exploring Constructed Response Questions: SCHOLARly e-Assessment
Dr Helen Ashton, Head of e-Assessment (SCHOLAR), Heriot-Watt University
Scotland’s National Assessment Resource
Neil Livesey, Project Manager National Assessment Resource, Learning Teaching Scotland/Scottish Qualifications Authority
Death of handwriting?
Nora Mogey, e-Learning manager, University of Edinburgh
Alta Maths: “Better than working in your jotter!”
Rosetta McLeod, ICT Development Manager, Dundee City Council; Lorraine Munro, ICT Staff Tutor, Dundee City Council; Debbie Thom, ICT Staff Tutor, Dundee College
e-Assessments in Solar
Graeme Clark, Project Manager, Scottish Qualifications Authority
Introducing the WordPress e-Portfolio
Duncan Gillespie, eLearning Coordinator/Lecturer, Dumfries & Galloway College; Robert Brown, Lecturer, Dumfries & Galloway College
Skills Professionalism and Employability in the Life Sciences
Dr Maureen Benwell & Dr Linda Morris, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee
e-scape Scotland: Capturing Creative Thinking in Real Time
Susan McLaren, Senior Lecturer in Design and Technology, University of Edinburgh
Formative, Summative and Rewards-based Assessment in Virtual Worlds
Daniel Livingstone, Lecturer, University of the West of Scotland
Keynotes
Convivial Learning in a Tangled World
John Connell, Education Business Development Manager, Cisco Systems
“I consider conviviality to be individual freedom realized in personal interdependence and, as such, an intrinsic ethical value.” So said, Ivan Illich. Assessment of learners has to begin with an understanding of what the learning is for.
Scottish education can build on enlightenment thinking, the democratic intellect and world-leading developments such as the Curriculum for Excellence, Assessment is for Learning, and Glow to show the rest of the world how an education system can adapt to and shape our hyper-connected world. The schooled mind is moribund; the convivial mind is for tomorrow.
Putting the ‘Assess’ in e-Assessment
Professor Dai Hounsell, Vice-Principal for Academic Enhancement, University of Edinburgh
Too many university teachers, I suspect, e-Assessment currently means little more than multiple-choice questions and Turnitin. I’d like to argue that e-Assessment can offer much wider, much richer and yes more exciting possibilities, but to identify and pursue those more systematically, we need to work from a good grasp of present and future assessment practices in higher education.
‘Are We There Yet?’ - Tracking the Development of e-Assessment in Scotland’s Colleges
Martyn Ware, Head of e-Assessment and Learning, Scottish Qualifications Authority
In the early 2000s Scotland’s colleges were perceived as making serious attempts to understand and work with e-Assessment. Since this time significant progress has continued to be made although the rate of progress appears to have slowed. This keynote will seek to review what has actually happened over this time.
Drawing on experience from SQA’s close partnership working with Scotland’s colleges and other national agencies supporting them, it will review the work undertaken by national bodies to seek to encourage and facilitate growth in the use of e-Assessment and the practical activities being undertaken at college level. It will set the development of e-Assessment in the context within which the colleges operate and make some tentative projections about likely future trends based on the current position.
Parallel Sessions
Using Games for Evidencing Workplace Skills
Mhairi McAlpine, Project Manager, Scottish Qualifications Authority
In 2005 SQA introduced a new range of qualification designed to assess candidates Workplace Skills. Issues with evidencing some of the competences in a realistic and practicable way lead to a search for a technological solution, including the exploration of the use of gaming technology to assess candidates in key competences.
This presentation will demonstrate how serious games can be used to allow candidates to demonstrate their abilities in a simulated workplace setting, giving consistancy to the assessment environment while maintaining tutors autonomy in assessment.
Wikis, Webs & Writing(s)
Neil Winton, Head of English, Perth Academy
The English Department at Perth Academy have been using wikis as an integral part of their formative assessment of writing. By taking some of their work online, pupils have been much more critical of their own writing simply because they are writing for a ‘real’ and rather large audience!
In this session, Neil Winton (PT English) will give an overview of some of the pupil wikis from Perth Academy.
Accessible e-Assessment
David Sloan, University of Dundee (left)
John Kleeman, Founder and Chairman, Questionmark (right)
The ability to provide accessible assessments is becoming increasingly important, with some organisations now having a legal requirement to do so. E-assessment provides a cost-effective solution that can be customised to meet a variety of accessibility requirements and eliminates the need to maintain multiple versions of an assessment.
While best practice in this area is still developing, there are some key standards and certification issues that need to be addressed to ensure assessments are accessible. Questionmark and Dundee University have been collaborating to develop functionalities within Questionmark Perception that provide authors with the tools they need to create assessments in line with best practice in accessible web design.
This presentation will provide an overview of this project and showcase developments that address accessibility issues.
Exploring Constructed Response Questions: SCHOLARly e-Assessment
Dr Helen Ashton, Head of e-Assessment (SCHOLAR), Heriot-Watt University
Too often e-assessment has been associated with selected response questions (variations on “choose an answer from the following list”).
This talk will concentrate on constructed response questions, exploring how they enhance question design. Examples will include those involving mathematical and graphical answers.
Scotland’s National Assessment Resource
Neil Livesey, Project Manager National Assessment Resource, Learning Teaching Scotland/Scottish Qualifications Authority
The proposed National Assessment Resource (NAR) is an innovative project that is being designed to support Curriculum for Excellence assessment strategies. At the heart of the proposal is a repository where all assessment resources will reside, which will provide a single coherent national assessment system, building a service for Scotland based on international best practice. This presentation will concentrate on the technical aspects of the service and what is being built to support the future assessment strategies.
Death of handwriting?
Nora Mogey, e-Learning manager, University of Edinburgh
Most students do most of their day to day work using a computer, but at the end of the semester many universities still expect students to write exam essays by hand.
This session will describe a project at The University of Edinburgh, which offers students the choice to type their essay-examination using their own laptops. In addition to the technical and practical aspects the project has explored student reactions and differences in marking handwritten and typed scripts.
Alta Maths: “Better than working in your jotter!”
Rosetta McLeod, ICT Development Manager, Dundee City Council (left)
Lorraine Munro, ICT Staff Tutor, Dundee City Council (right)
Debbie Thom, ICT Staff Tutor, Dundee College
Alta Maths is a web-based formative assessment system, originally produced in Northern Ireland, but adapted to meet the needs of the Scottish curriculum.
This session will describe a project in three primary schools in Dundee which indicates that Alta Maths seems to have played an important role in raising attainment. Feedback from staff and pupils has been very positive, with the youngsters particularly enjoying the independence of working online to improve their results.
The detailed diagnostic feedback which the system provides is invaluable in ensuring that pupils have grasped the fundamental principles of numeracy.
e-Assessments in Solar
Graeme Clark, Project Manager, Scottish Qualifications Authority
SQA’s Solar continues to develop an increasing number of summative and formative e-Assessments based on banks of quality-assured question items covering qualifications from National Certificate to Higher National Diploma (HND). Formative e-Assessments are quality assured and have detailed learner feedback built-in. Available subjects include:-
Internet Technologies (including Internet Safety)
Hairdressing and Beauty
Care
A wide selection of feedback-enhanced past-papers
Using the Open Assess portal, learners can access formative assessments 24/7. Over the next few months, a range of formative assessments and revision materials for other qualifications will be released. Visit the Solar website for updates.
This presentation highlights what’s available, covers current activities and gives a glimpse of future developments.
Introducing the WordPress e-Portfolio
Duncan Gillespie, eLearning Coordinator/Lecturer, Dumfries & Galloway College (left)
Robert Brown, Lecturer, Dumfries & Galloway College (right)
From a small pilot project, Dumfries and Galloway College’s e-Portfolio now covers all curricular areas and has also been adopted by other colleges in the Scottish Educational Sector. The college also provides e-Portfolios to some school pupils not attending college. It is also seen as a benefit by the learners, with 77% indicating that they thought an e-Portfolio would be of benefit when looking for employment.
E-Portfolios have always been available for learners to take away and we now meet IMS standards to allow import/export facilities to compliant systems. The project has been subject to widespread peer evaluation by HMIe, SFEU, JISC RSCs, COLEG and several colleges and practitioners who have confirmed the success of the initiative.
Skills Professionalism and Employability in the Life Sciences
Dr Maureen Benwell, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee
Dr Linda Morris, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee
The Skills, Professionalism and Employability in Life Sciences (SPELS) modules run in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year. Worth 10 Scotcat credits, they aim to equip students with skills for successful study; to develop independent learning skills, increase recognition and self-awareness of skills acquisition, foster self-reflection of achievements and to begin to identify career goals and aspirations
These modules have minimal face-to-face contact time, with most materials delivered via My Dundee, the university’s web-based student portal, and most assessments run via Questionmark Perception or by electronic submission. Students also populate a PDP through the 3 years to record their achievements. We will discuss the logistics of delivering these modules to 200+ students and present student feedback on skills gained
e-scape Scotland: Capturing Creative Thinking in Real Time
Susan McLaren, Senior Lecturer in Design and Technology, University of Edinburgh
‘e-scape scotland’ explores innovative methods of assessing performance, based on groundbreaking work by Goldsmiths’
Technology Education Research Unit. The project encourages learners to capture their thinking, ideas, processes and outcomes, in multi-modal expression, in real time, as design activities are undertaken.
The approach adopts small digital devices, in conjunction with bespoke software, to build interactive portfolio records for learners. Teachers can provide feedback, prompts, and set targets. The main thrust of this project is to explore the potential of the e-scape methodology in school classrooms where learning and ‘Assessment for Learning’ is the primary concern. Interim responses from teachers, learners and researcher perspectives are also reported here.
Formative, Summative and Rewards-based Assessment in Virtual Worlds
Daniel Livingstone, Lecturer, University of the West of Scotland
SLOODLE (Simulation Linked Object Oriented Dynamic Learning
Environment) links Second Life or OpenSim with the Moodle VLE - bridging the web-based and virtual worlds divide - enabling blending of activities between disparate platforms.
Gradebook integration provides new assessment types for activities that take place in the 3D environment. Existing Moodle quizzes can be brought into the 3D space, allowing assessments to be situated in environments directly relevant to curricula.
A more recent development is SLOODLE Awards - a points-based rewards framework which allows tutors to reward students on an ad hoc basis or related to success in assessments and on completion of class activities.
This talk will outline SLOODLE and present examples of e-Assessment from different classes and contexts.