Reimagining online grading, assessment, and testing using situated cognition

ABSTRACT

Increased online learning is helping many appreciate that online grading, formative assessment, and summative testing can cause instructor burnout and leave little time for more productive instructor interactions. We reimagined grading, assessment, and testing in an extended program of design-based research using situative theory to refine online courses in secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and technical contexts. This research minimized private instructor-student interactions (including grading and private formative feedback) while maximizing public interactions. We present 10 assessment design principles, including a new principle concerning diversity and equity. We assume that these principles will be new to many readers and counter-intuitive to some. These principles focus on assessment functions (rather than ostensible purposes) and align learning across increasingly formal levels. We argue that doing so can maximize formative and transformative assessment functions, position students as authors, rather than consumers, reposition minoritized students to empower them, and increase validity and credibility of evidence.

KEYWORDS:

• grading
• assessment
• testing
• online learning
• situated cognition

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the contributions to this research by Chris Andrews, Tara Kelly, Joshua Quick, Rebecca Itow, and Suraj Uttamchandani. We also acknowledge the contribution to these ideas from our collaborating instructors Jody Duncan, Christine Hitchcock, and Courtney Gaylord.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel Hickey

Daniel Hickey is a professor of learning sciences at Indiana University.

Tripp Harris

Tripp Harris is a PhD student in learning sciences at Indiana University.