The assessment of student use of Web 2.0 tools – how sustainable is it?

Margaret Hamilton Joan Richardson

Panel for College of Science, Engineering and Health Learning and Teaching Forum 2010 - "Building a sustainable future" - 26th November 2010

ALTC Project Team

Jenny Waycott (project manager), Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne.

Celia Thompson, School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne. Margaret Hamilton, School of Computer Science and IT, RMIT University. Joan Richardson, School of Business Information Technology, RMIT University. Kathleen Gray (project leader), Faculty of Medicine / Department of Information

Systems, University of Melbourne. Rosemary Clerehan, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash

University. Judithe Sheard, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University.

The future of assessing “academic writing”

Kakutani(2010, paras 13-14)

“jump to the summary, the video clip, the sound bite — never mind if context and nuance are lost in the process; never mind if it’s our emotions, more than our sense of reason, that are engaged; never mind if statements haven’t been properly vetted and sourced”“tweet and text one another during plays and movies, forming judgments before seeing the arc of the entire work” “power-search for nuggets of information that might support their theses, saving them the time of wading through stacks of material that might prove marginal but that might have also prompted them to reconsider or refine their original thinking”

What do you think?

“The assessment of student web 2.0 authoring

is [.......................] for learning and teaching in Australian universities”.

ALTC Project Aims

A collegial approach to addressing the challenges of university assessment 2.0:

1. Survey and interview Australian teaching academics (September 2009)

2. Convene a national roundtable (November 2009)

3. Field-test good practice guidelines (February to June 2010)

4. Produce and share resources (July 2010 ff)

What goes on in assessment 2.0?

The mechanics of the assignment :

• What Web 2.0 activities do students do in this assignment?

• How long are students given to complete the assignment?

• How long do students take to complete this assignment?

• Where do students complete the assignment?

The mechanics of the assignment

Type of Web 2.0 activity Number of responses

wiki writing 32

blogging/microblogging 31

social networking 17

audio/video podcasting 16

virtual world activities 12

social bookmarking 11

What goes on in assessment 2.0?

The point of the assignment :

• What are the intended learning outcomes for this assignment?

• How much does this assignment contribute towards students’ overall mark for this unit of study?

• Is it compulsory for students to do this assignment to pass the subject/unit of study?

What goes on in assessment 2.0?

The marking process:

• Who marks the assignment?

• What techniques are used to mark the assignment?

• What kind of feedback do students receive?

The marking process

Who marks the assignment? Number of responses

Marked by one staff member 40

Marked by more than one staff member

17

Marked by other students 8

Self-marked by the student/s responsible

7

What would good practice look like?

When university students are asked to demonstrate their learning using this form of web 2.0 authoring, what academic standards, and assessment and reporting practices are essential or desirable?

Proceedings of national roundtable: http://web2assessmentroundtable.pbworks.com/

What would good practice look like?

Affordances:Ensuring an appropriate fit between what Web 2.0 activities entail and what assessment is trying to achieve

• Open publishing• Communication styles and texts• Personal identity and experience• Co-creation, collaboration, • crowdsourcing• Content management

What would good practice look like?

Processes:Supporting individual and

organisational learning throughout the cycle of assessment activities

What would good practice look like?

Policy:Assessment that is safe and

fair for students and staff• disability• access to IT services or

equipment• appropriate conduct• identity and privacy• academic honesty and integrity• special consideration• moral rights and copyright

What works and doesn’t work in real subject teaching settings?

17 subjects @ 5 universities during Semester 1, 2010:

BloggingCriminal LawCultural StudiesMedia Studies

Social bookmarking EducationSocial networking Japanese

Photo and video sharing

Communication DesignEconomicsWork Integrated Learning

Virtual worldsBusinessChinese

Wiki writing

AccountingEducationScienceInformation TechnologyItalian

Combined Web 2.0 tools

Document ManagementInformation Technology

RMIT participants and panellists

• Michael Nott: Assessment of student use of Web 2.0 online – rubric for discussion

• John Terrell: Assessment of student use of Web 2.0 blended with traditional delivery

• Michele Ruyters: Assessment of student use of Web 2.0 totally integrated into coursework

We acknowledge contributions by ...Project Advisory Group• Matthew Allen, Bill Anderson, Greg Battye, Robyn Benson, Tracey Bretag, Jenny Buckworth,

Denise Chalmers, Geoffrey Crisp, Leitha Delves, Bobby Elliott, Jacqui Ewart, Glenn Finger, Tom Franklin, Merrilyn Goos, Scott Grant, Ashley Holmes, Christopher Hughes, David Jones, Marj Kibby, Adrian Kirkwood, Mark Lee, Catherine McLoughlin, Beverley Oliver, Kaz Ross, Alison Ruth, Royce Sadler, Mary Simpson, Arthur Winzenried, Katina Zammit, Lynette Zeeng.

Project Reference Group• Michael Abulencia, Robyn Benson, John Benwell, Marsha Berry, Marilys Guillemin, Laura

Harris, Deborah Jones, Gregor Kennedy, Shaun Khoo, George Kotsanas, Lauren O’Dwyer, Jason Patten, Emma Read, Julianne Reid, Gordon Sanson, Cristina Varsavsky.

Project Field-testing Group• Matthew Absolom, Anne Davies, Cathy Farrell, Scott Grant, Terry Hallahan, Michael

Henderson, John Hurst, Ramon Laboto, Warren McKeown, Michael Nott, Kerry Pantzopoulos, Michele Ruyters, Sukunesan Sinnappan, Michael Smith, Sandra Smith, Robyn Spence-Brown, Elizabeth Stewart, John Terrell, Jenny Weight, Lynette Zeeng

ALTC Support for this project has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd.

(www.altc.edu.au), an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, or the views of individual contributors apart from the project team.

We invite you to join in and extend the discussion

• Moodle: www.groups.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=2146

• Blog: http://web2assessment.blogspot.com

• Bookmarks: http://www.citeulike.org/tag/assessment20

• Workshops 2010-2011 @ HERDSA, ATN Assessment, ASCILITE, ALTC

• Feedback: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22APCVU3JP7