Fit for purpose: traditional assessment is failing undergraduates with learning difficulties. Might eAssessment help?

Abstract

Recent years have seen unprecedented growth in the size, diversity and academic orientation of undergraduate student populations. There is evidence that the use of innovative pedagogies using information and communications technology has the potential to address such student diversity by offering opportunities for a more personalised student learning experience. However, ways of assessing student work in such personalised learning contexts have remained a challenge for most English universities, dominated by traditional high stakes, timed exercises. Being almost always text-intensive, these can prove particularly stressful and disadvantageous for the growing numbers of students with specific learning difficulties (SpLD). Such challenges are examined in relation to national requirements and exemplified in the SpLD strategies developed in two faculties of an English university. The paper defines key principles and practices to be realised in order for assessment to be considered fit for purpose. Using these as criteria, traditional assessment is compared to new ways of evaluating student progress that are personalised, integral to and embedded in the learning process. It is concluded that computer-based assessment (eAssessment) offers fairer and more inclusive ways of monitoring, diagnosing, supporting learning and reporting students' achievements.

• assessment
• special educational needs
• educational technology
• higher education

Notes on contributors

Dr Peter Williams lectures and researches in Technology Enhanced Learning in the Faculty of Education, University of Hull.

Jane Wray is a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull.

Helen Farrall lectures in Academic English / Study Skills in the Faculty of Education, University of Hull.

Jo Aspland is a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull.