Prior generations placed a heavy emphasis on reading, memorization, and being able to repeat information. I can vividly remember studying notes from class and memorizing them word-for-word to be able to repeat them on a written test. Towards the end of the year we would be given a standardized test that was marked using a scantron. These were often highly stressful times, as it was someone other than your teacher who would be marking your exam. No hope for half marks even if you did your work correct and wound up with the wrong answer on your calculator. These types of assessment took away from teacher feedback. However, these forms of assessment became the focus of large technology companies that were looking to make the lives of educators easier, while also filling their pockets. I believe students learn best when they can track their mistakes and visualize the changes that need to be made. Some online assessment tools have begun to make positive changes in this direction.

Similar assessment options to the scantron still exist today. Nevertheless, there is much more versatility and user creativity. Teachers can create multiple choice tests using Google Forms. This program provides instant feedback to students on whether their answers were correct or incorrect. Using math as an example, the program does not make providing specific feedback through the application very easy. Teachers would still need to determine their students thought process while answering the question or have them complete written work on a piece of paper to be able to provide them with specific feedback. However, for other applications, Google Forms provides learners the opportunity to complete the form using long or short answers. Students are then able to type their answers linked to a specific question. Teachers are notified once students have completed the form and they can provide a numerical score beside each answer. This gives students the opportunity to complete short answer assignments using a computer and organizes all the responses in a common place for teachers to view. Additionally, this form of assessment is also commonly used in distance learning delivery. Students can access the assessment from their phone or computer and share their answers with their teacher in an efficient manner.

The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has welcomed new opportunities for assessment within education. Utilizing programs such as Chat GPT or Magic School teachers can create rubrics for their assignments using guiding phrases and a few clicks. Teachers can then copy the AI rubric to the productivity suite of their choice and make further edits or adjustments to their liking. Utilizing rubrics help teachers to create consistency in their marking, guide students throughout their assignments by stating what needs to be included to achieve full marks while also serving as a conversation piece if teachers are challenged on their marking schemes.

In conclusion, assessment technology options are becoming vaster as time passes. Teachers need to evaluate the options that are available to them and ensure that they are keeping feedback and student learning at the forefront. Teachers should strive to use assessment technologies that focus on feedback, reflective practices, and the student’s ability to apply what they have learned. Students should never receive a grade without reasoning.

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Today, we are covered by technology especially in all aspects of education, thus it also plays an important role in a revolutionary way to support assessment by making both formative and summative assessments more engaging, effective and responsible.

Technology encourages timely feedback which enables teachers to switch between different teaching techniques based on students’ actual requirements. This responsiveness can be beneficial in learning and recognizing potential deficiency areas in comparison to normal tests. However, particularly the adaptive learning interventions may customise the assessment activities in a manner, which is preferred as well as understood by the learner.

Addressing Challenges and Concerns

Along with technology benefits there are some of the concerns too especially social and cultural considerations. The use of such formats of tests only serves to compound the social inequalities in education since the privation in this method is the internet and the technological literacy, which some learners can hardly get. This is a fair issue of concern in regards of the fairness of the assessment practices. Furthermore, the emphasis is placed on quantified results rather than discussions of learning with the emphasis on substantial ideas as it becomes the responsibility of the teachers that their students should consider assessments more than evaluations.

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Best Practices for Implementation

In my view, educators who likes to use technology in assessment should use several forms of assessments rather than only testing. It may include engaging in subject related content learning activities such as projects, discussions, portfolios, simulations and peer assessments rather than having only exams. Stressing on the role of feedback is critical because technologies can enable quick feedback giving to specific instructional and learning activities. Furthermore, to support the students cantered learning, professional development to help educators use technology effectively in the assessment of students is important. Discussions about assessment helps students to appreciate and feel in charge of their experiences which mainly leads to relevant learning efforts throughout their studies.

For this blog post i have read these articles-

https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/impact-technology-assessment-evaluation-higher/51460

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2019.00116/full

Many people believe that assessment is just merely a spreadsheet of scores which defines the final outcome of the student. However, Joe Bower words “Assessment is not a spreadsheet; it’s a conversation” delineates unique thoughts about the assessment. As an educator, we should reflect on how we can integrate digital tools to support the “ good assessment practices”. I believe technology has the real potential to reform education giving priority to individualized learning. In my perspective, to make assessment more communicative we Educators should follow certain steps. Firstly, teachers should motivate students to conduct peer assessments which would definitely enhance their critical thinking skills. They will see assessment as an integral part of their learning experience, not just a final judgment of marks.

Moreover, This approach will build collaboration skills and encourage them to communicate and appreciate diverse viewpoints. Tools like padlet or Flipgrid allow students to be creative and understand open-ended learning. Furthermore, Assessment should not be considered as a one time event rather it is a reflective process therefore, educators should promote formative assessment over summative. Various tools like google sites or seesaw can be used to incorporate reflective assessment in the teaching practice which will help teachers to track students progress and think beyond final scores. 

Educators should reshape the thinking and its purpose about assessment from data collection to conversation. We all together have to create an environment where education is aligned with Joe Bower’s vision. I would say the future of assessment would be a classroom where technology plays a crucial role in exchanging ideas, feedback and growth- a true conversation about learning.

    For several decades, technological assessments have changed how we administer content and gather information. The use and evolution of assessment technologies in education have resulted in dynamic growth, innovation, and adaptations. As with any type of assessment, the choice of and the implementation of the assessment technology should always have purpose and should support the relevant learning outcome and pedagogical approach in an accurate way. It is also important to include a variety of formative and summative assessment to obtain a broad picture of student's learning and understanding.

All of us, educators, know the feeling of seeing a pile of ungraded assessment tasks on our desks – an unmistakable indicator of several subsequent hours of work. That is probably the reason why so many teachers are experimenting with online assessment forms nowadays as they seem to save us a lot of time and effort. As Eddy, Latoya, and Nysa mentioned in their wonderful presentation, digital tools enable more frequent assessment, faster feedback, and easier data collection for future analysis (the latter point is also described in detail in Matthew Cullen’s article). At the same time, however modern and advanced digital assessment may seem, it may sometimes be a step back from the newly developed efficient testing practices.

Examples of Digital Assessments From My ESL Classroom Experience

I don’t practise a lot of online-based assessments with my students as I teach adult newcomers from a wide range of educational, professional, and age backgrounds, and the levels of each student’s computer skills vary a lot. Therefore, introducing too many digitalized tests may add unnecessary stress for some students. However, we still do quite a few online activities in class, so here are some ideas I have personally implemented:

What Can We Do to Ensure That Online Tools Support Effective Assessment Practices?

• Remember that technology is just one of the tools, while your students’ learning is the priority

As you probably noticed, both of my computer-based assessments described in the left column of the table are real-world tasks and could be easily applied in everyday life. This is one of the main requirements of Portfolio-Based Language Assessment (PBLA) – a teaching model used in Language Instructions for Newcomers to Canada (LINC). I believe that this principle – making assessment as close to the reality as possible – is the key toward supporting beneficial testing practices. No matter whether we evaluate our students’ skills on paper, through a conversation, or online, we shouldn’t forget that the goal of our teaching is to prepare our students for the real world. Prioritizing our learners’ success will naturally guide us to choosing the right style of assessment, and its format (be it digital or traditional) will just remain a tool to execute that assessment.

• Alternate between different types of assessment

Using online tools can increase learners’ engagement and even make our tests less stressful and more interesting for our students. Nonetheless, just as traditional assessments face a risk of becoming too repetitive and even ineffective, so do online ones. The key to avoid that is to implement different kinds of assessment in your class. I believe that alternating between online, paper-based, and conversational activities will give students an opportunity to demonstrate their skills in various ways and help us as educators compare different testing approaches.

• Give personalized feedback

Even if the computer has promptly graded your students’ multiple choice assignment, it still does not mean that they will benefit from just finding out their scores. As instructors, we should do our best to give learners personalized feedback that would help them understand why they made certain mistakes and what they can do to improve. It is certainly complicated to provide thorough comments to a large number of students, but we should at least try to follow up with the learners who need more support or who show a significant shift (whether a positive or a negative one) in their progress. According to Eddy, Latoya, and Nysa, digital tools are unable to appraise complex learning outcomes and do not allow users to engage thoroughly with their tasks. Though technology can greatly assist us in assessment, it can’t replace the value of individualized feedback.

Does Digital Assessment Have a Positive or a Negative Impact on the Society and Culture?

I suppose all of the technologies we have been discussing during these months are double-edge swords. Let’s stay optimistic and first look at the positive influence digital learning has on people’s lives.

According to UNESCO’s Technology in education – 2023 GEM Report, technology is making education (and, consequently, assessment) more accessible to hard-to-reach learners. Mobile devises have been utilized in remote areas to facilitate communication between instructors, students, and parents, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Open universities give disadvantaged and working adults an opportunity for life-long learning. Radio instruction, television, printed and audiovisual materials have been used to help reach their educational goals (UNESCO Technology in education – 2023 GEM Report).

Unfortunately, as we learned from Eddy, Latoya, and Nysa’s presentation and from the UNESCO report, online learning and assessment tools are still unattainable for many people as implementing them requires a certain level of digital literacy and access to electronic devices. Therefore, teachers and students who do not meet those requirements may feel substantially disadvantaged compared to others, even though the former might have more expertise and knowledge in other areas of learning. This might cause an unfair division in the society, separating “tech-savvy” educators and learners from the ones who are not digitally literate enough. In my opinion, there are several solutions to this issue:

• Providing options

One of the most world-popular English language assessments, IELTS, offers language learners several ways to take the test – online from home, in person on computer, and in person on paper. I feel that these choices perfectly accommodate all examinees. When I was taking IELTS Academic for my University of Regina application, I personally went for the second of the aforementioned options, and I was very satisfied with the process and the result of the assessment.

• Increasing digital literacy

It is certainly great that computer classes are now available at schools, but children and young people are not the only ones who are in need of good digital skills to achieve success. That is why computer literacy programs for adults could be of great help. The organization where I work as a LINC instructor provides such an opportunity to our clients, and several of my students have benefited from these digital literacy classes. The more people possess sufficient computer skills, the easier it will be to incorporate digital assessment into the education system without making anyone feel excluded.

• Introducing the changes slowly and gradually

It might be too much of a stress for students and educators to rapidly switch to digital assessment, so it would be a good idea to launch it carefully. Matthew Cullen proposes running “pilot online examinations for one department or faculty” and “assess the experience before making any major changes” (Matthew Cullen). The author believes this can ensure that a certain software would work well for a specific institution. Matthew Cullen also offers to survey all of the concerned parties as a part of the pilot study to evaluate how they feel about the potential digital changes.

With more and more technologies emerging every day, we can’t expect them not to influence the way knowledge and skills are assessed. Though digital educational tools are gaining a lot of popularity nowadays, it is important that we use them to develop modern, student-friendly assessment practices and not to go back to some of the obsolete behaviourist approaches. Furthermore, if technology-based assessment is to be introduced, we must make sure learners and educators are given enough time to adjust and enough opportunity to express their opinion about the changes.

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Firstly, I would like to thank today’s presenters for their elaborative talk on Digital assessment tools, which plays a crucial role in effective teaching learning process. The late educator Joe Bower has emphasized a lot on assessment tools for an overall development of a learner. Assessment used to be a kind of series of scores rather than a communication with learners which has changed with the involvement of technology in education system. Advent of technology, started implementing around 1970 and progressed later, has both positive and negative impact on every aspect of life and educational assessment of the students is no exception. Use of these digital assessment tools have become prevalent in this technological era. Here in this blog, as an educator, I will be talking about practices that need to be considered while choosing these tools to ensure high levels of student learning and thinking along with its potential impact on culture and society.

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First and foremost, drawback of using Digital assessment (DA) tools is compilation of files which can be eradicated by managing all examination data in one software solution. Secondly, practice tests should be created for students in scheduled online testing platform so that students may be made familiar with these tools in advance as a result they can perform well on the same platform while their final exams. Thirdly, cost is another barrier on student’s part. Hence an educator must take care of the pattern of online testing centre so that it may not put financial burden on the students. Additionally, use of digital tools can be harmful such as distracting learners. Without an adult supervision it can be threat to society and democracy. To avoid this, learners should be taught thorough use of technology for effective learning.

Furthermore, any digital assessment tool should be checked on regular basis for its improvement or modification as per needs of the learners. Another important factor needs to be addressed that it should be equally accessible by every learner and may not put any hurdle on way to education for students, in other words, use of these tools should remove digital divide, as mentioned by Latoya during her presentation that it is a major concern for online learning tools. Adding further, online testing solution should give detailed feedback of student’s exams, like along with feedback of test results it should also emphasize on analysis of psychometric performance such as time spent on answering the question. Apart from this, online assessment tools should conduct exams with remote proctoring which means certain conditions need to be fulfilled by students to attempt the examination and it should not be dynamic. Besides this, computer-based assessment can impact the protection and privacy of exam questions. To ensure longevity of exam questions certain tools need to be introduced by teacher and administration. I personally prefer, before applying any digital assessment tool for my class, to verify that tool for my students so that it may not lead to any vague outcome for my course.

In the conclusion part, I would add on that these are certain major factors which should be kept in notice by an educator before applying for my classroom examination routines to remove the flaws from it and make assessment more impactful and productive. It helps to give logics and reasoning to students for their overall development of them.

I have gone through an article: 10 Facts About Online Assessment Tools | TestReach Blog

I have also read article: Technology in education – 2023 GEM Report

I have also looked for: Dr Erik Voss – The supporting role of technology in learning-oriented assessment