On CampusTechnology
Centralising assessment doesn’t mean standardising pedagogy: Opinion
Adopting this approach has to be flexible and take into account different modalities used to assess students’ work, according to Piero Tintori
Most universities dream of a future that embraces digital assessment and exams, but the journey to get there is complex and not universally supported.
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I like the idea of centralised assessments, but the reality is tricky.
Say we want to run a mid-semester MCQ test for 300 students. Typically we create 2 or 4 versions of the test, just to make cheating harder (typically only a handful of students seem to have cheated). Typically the test is created proofread and made “pretty” and is usually ready to print a few days before the test.
If we do this via some central body, they will want the finished product at least 3 weeks before the date of the test. And they will not be keen on running multiple versions that have to be laid out in a particular way. They will want all mid-sems to be the same length so that multiple tests can be run at the same time in the same venue.
If a central body promised to…
(a) allowed us to deliver the papers on the day
(b) allowed us to lay out the papers
(c) allowed flexibility in the length of tests
Then maybe it would work. But the nature of bureaucracy is to adjust things over time to suit themselves (and the budget imposed on them), so maybe we wouldn’t believe the promises…