Innovative Assessment and Quality Assurance

Eliana Elkhoury, Athabasca University

Track: Learning experience design/ Volet: Conception des expériences d’apprentissage

Type: One-hour Innovative Topic Discussion

Innovation in assessment is a contentious topic. The most prominent two camps of thoughts are divided in terms of quality assurance, validity, and reliability and sometimes rigour on one hand and equity, inclusion, and accessibility on the other. Despite the controversy, there are instructors who are using innovative approaches to assessment. Some instructors use the innovative approaches to assessment in formative ways and others use them in summative assessments. In the last two years, the pandemic also encouraged instructors to be more innovative with their assessment designs. Exams are not always the best way to assess students' learning. New technologies, open education, work integrated learning, experiential learning and many other factors are an indication that there is a need to assess students in a more meaningful way. Exams raise concerns about the alignment of assessment with the learning objectives which is also known as constructive alignment. When exams are held online, a different layer of complexity unfolds with cheating and equity. In brief, exams are not the best way to assess students, there are many instructors who don’t use exams anymore but the question of quality assurance remains at the forefront. Quality assurance in this case refers to both the traditional and the contemporary approaches of quality including the validity, reliability, as well as the constructive alignment and the relationship between assessment and teaching and learning. How do I make sure that my innovative assessment is measuring the intended learning outcome and how do I manage grade inflation are some of the questions often asked by instructors. 

Learning objectives:

The goal of this session is to discuss innovative assessments design and possible strategies and mindset that instructors can use to guarantee quality assurance.