Module 2: Introduction

Making an assessment is one of the cornerstones of higher education. It is through assessment that it is validated and determined that students have the knowledge and skills that are expected according to the learning outcomes. But assessment is also a formative activity where students receive comments and feedback on their strengths and weaknesses which guide them in continuing to develop as a learner in the subject area at hand.

Assessment using digital tools

Adding the word “digital” before assessment in practice means that the students' performances and/or your assessment of these performances are mediated using digital tools. So using digital tools means adding additional tools to your toolbox for teaching and learning. Some of these tools are used more for administrative reasons. It is for example easier to handle a large number of essay submissions using an LMS than having to manage the physical paper version. But often, digital tools also enhance the authenticity of assessment as most of the situations where professional in-service engineers, architects, and teachers demonstrate their abilities involve digital tools. Other features are options for automatic or personalized/individualized assessment. Meaning that the computer can do the assessment to some degree and that different students may show that that reached the learning outcomes in different ways.

Assessment and generative AI

The vast amount of generative AI tools has changed the preconditions for assessment. Exactly how this should be managed with respect to assessment is something that is being heavily discussed within academia. We will follow up and continue that discussion in this module in order to see how assessment can be changed by looking forward on how this type of technology will make us change our practices.

Assignment

The assignment for this module will be about creating your own digital assessment for one of the courses you are teaching or would like to teach. That should be done within a special Sandbox course room that we have created in Canvas for this course where every course participants have editing rights. When you are done with the actual digital assignment, we expect you to describe it and reflect upon what the strengths are and what the potential improvements could be. And similar to what we did for the first module, you will provide and receive feedback from other course participants.