Insights into how academics reframed their assessment during a pandemic: disciplinary variation and assessment as afterthought

Abstract

COVID-19 caused substantial change in learning and teaching in higher education. In this article we explore how assessment changed in the initial semester of emergency remote teaching in an Australian university. Seventy academics responsible for courses (unit of study), representing a wide array of disciplines, completed an online survey at the end of the semester in June 2020. They answered questions regarding their experiences and actions in shifting their course online from face-to-face delivery at the point of the pivot online. A mixed methods approach identified that most academics did not change the composition and relative weighting of their assessment in response to the pivot. The dominant strategy was to translate existing on-campus assessment into an online format. The research provides insight into disciplinary norms for assessment and, we argue, signals how forms of assessment are valued based on their retention during a time of consequential change in pedagogy. For academics in our study, assessment was an afterthought to the more pressing focus on pedagogical interactions with students. Academic integrity matters were not a factor in their decision-making process during that initial move to remote emergency teaching. Linking assessment with pedagogy, whether online, on-campus and both, matters moving forward.

Keywords:

• E-assessment
• covid-19
• authentic assessment
• disciplinary norms

Acknowledgements

Financial support to conduct this study from the University of Queensland is gratefully acknowledged. The collegial support of this University’s academic participants and researchers is also recognised.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of this research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christine Slade

Christine Slade is an Education-Focused Senior Lecturer in the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, where she is the lead for assessment. Christine is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Gwendolyn Lawrie

Gwen Lawrie is an Education-Focused Professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Nantana Taptamat

Nantana Taptamat has a PhD in education from The University of Queensland, Australia. Her research focuses on teaching and learning science. She is particularly interested in technology-enhanced learning, culturally responsive curriculum and learning and identity development.

Eleanor Browne

Eleanor Browne is an Associate Lecturer in Enterprise and Innovation Education at The University of Queensland’s Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation (Australia), and a PhD candidate at the University of Plymouth (UK). She is a specialist in entrepreneurial education and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Karen Sheppard

Karen Sheppard is a learning designer in the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. She holds a PhD examining the influence of data in education systems.

Kelly E. Matthews

Kelly E. Matthews is an Associate Professor in Higher Education in the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow.