Rethinking Assessment by Creating More Authentic, Learning-Oriented Tasks to Generate Student Engagement

Abstract

In March 2020, assessment in universities and colleges globally changed in radical and unprecedented ways when the Covid-19 pandemic closed campuses to students and staff, meaning that on-site, unseen, time-constrained exams could not take place. University management and staff had to move very fast to ensure that students could be assessed reliably and validly in crisis conditions. The authors' immediate and widely shared suggestions on pragmatic alternatives incorporating assessment-for-learning principles were well-received and prompted the development of a systematic and practical six-stage ‘task-generator' to enable the creation of flexible context/scenario-based assessment activities for use off-campus. This chapter concludes by arguing why some of the changes implemented in crisis conditions have so much value in terms of student learning and engagement that universities must never revert to an over-reliance on former modes of assessment.