Design and implementation choices > Roles of e-assessment in course design

Question 28
How can regular summative e-assessments support learning?

• Niclas Larson
• George Kinnear

What motivates this question?

Two case studies are relevant here:

• Stockholm University changed their model of the first semester of mathematics studies about 10 years ago. A simplified description is that the semester includes two courses, algebra and calculus, each of 15 credit points. The students must pass eight e-based tests during the semester. The tests deal with “simple standard questions”. The purpose is to force students to start working already in the beginning of the semester. An interesting question is how this model promotes learning and how it can be implemented at other universities.

• The University of Edinburgh created a new introductory course, “Fundamentals of Algebra and Calculus” that makes extensive use of e-assessment in its delivery. The course uses a mastery approach, with weekly e-assessment tasks counting for the entire course grade (for further details, see Kinnear et al., in press).

What might an answer look like?

A possible approach would be a more comprehensive gathering of case studies. These could illustrate different possible models for summative e-assessment within a course, along with some evaluation of the effectiveness (and possible drawbacks) of the different approaches.

Related questions

• Even though this is not formative assessment, the purpose is to enhance students’ learning to improve their results on the final exam. Thus, this question is connected to Q27: How can formative e-assessments improve students’ performance in later assessments?
• The nature of the “standard tasks” and the mathematical skills they seek to develop are relevant to Q35: What types of reasoning are required to complete current e-assessments?
• When e-assessment is used summatively, an important consideration is Q36: To what extent do existing e-assessments provide reliable measures of mathematical understanding, as might otherwise be measured by traditional exams?
• Decisions about formative vs summative assessments depend on the capabilities of e-assessment: Q29: What are suitable roles for e-assessment in formative and summative assessment?

References

Kinnear, G., Wood, A. K. & Gratwick, R. (in press). Designing and evaluating an online course to support transition to university mathematics.