e-assessment in project e-scape

Abstract

In this paper I shall present a new model of assessment – derived specifically in the context of the latest research and development project being undertaken in TERU at Goldsmiths College. The paper starts with an analysis of some of the roots of our assessment practice in norm and criterion referencing, and I indicate some of the pitfalls of the criterion referencing approach that was developed as part of the England/Wales National Curriculum in the early 1990s. I then describe what we have done over the last couple of years in TERU to enable learners to create e-portfolios for assessment within project e-scape. Using these e-portfolios, I then present a completely new approach to assessment developed in association with the former head of research at the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. The approach was (on the face of it) simple, using a web-based interface. But the outcome was astonishing – producing reliability statistics of 0.93: far higher than can be achieved in normal coursework assessment. The issues that this approach raises are many and profound, not the least of which is the possibility of a new, trustworthy, conceptualisation of what coursework assessment might become. I conclude with a brief projection into the future – both in terms of how e-scape is planned to develop over the next few years and in terms of what.