Innovating for more authentic assessment
Following the pandemic, UNESCO reported that the adoption of educational technologies had progressed by 10 years in six months. Since then, new breakthroughs in edtech continue to emerge in various fields, including online assessment. This article explores trends in digital assessment and how they are redefining the way we evaluate.
Trend 1: Use of video responses
One of the most notable trends in digital assessment is the integration of video to create more authentic and meaningful assessments.
This question format encourages students to explain their thoughts, solve problems in real time and demonstrate their skills in a concrete way. Due to the uniqueness of responses, this approach reduces the risk of cheating. This emerging question format also allows students to develop their communication and oral presentation skills. Note that this format is not suitable for in-class assessment sessions.
Nexam perfectly aligns with this trend by offering an innovative assessment platform that integrates video responses into its assessments.
Trend 2: Diversity of question formats
In the world of digital evaluation, there is no single format that suits everyone. One thing’s for sure: digital assessment allows you to go much further than paper and red pen!
Nexam offers a variety of formats to construct an assessment: ranging from multiple-choice questions, true or false, essay writing, completing tables, asynchronous videos, open-ended questions, and photo responses. These diverse formats allow students to demonstrate their understanding and skills in various ways. This dynamic approach offers better adaptation to different subjects and specific learning objectives, while taking into account each student’s individual learning styles.
To make the most of your time, DON’T FORGET TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CERTAIN QUESTION FORMATS THAT AUTOMATICALLY GRADE THEMSELVES. LESS REPETITIVE GRADING TASKS TRANSLATE TO MORE TIME DEVOTED TO TEACHING!
Trend 3: Open-book assessments
Since the early 2000s, pedagogical approaches have supported the shift from knowledge assessments to skills assessments. Concretely, this increasingly translates into open-book assessments.
In an online examination context, how can we ensure that the candidate or student is looking at their notes and not their cellphone, for example? An interesting approach offered on Nexam is to provide access to authorized material directly within the exam writing environment. Thus, in a shared view, the user sees their test questions and various complementary documents: guides, legislation, course materials, etc. This material can come in various formats: pdf, text, website, images, videos, etc.
BONUS: Consulting complementary material avoids generating automatic proctoring events when exiting the exam writing environment.
Trend 4: Using data for continuous improvement
In an era where data is ubiquitous, knowing how to use and interpret it is crucial. In an online assessment context, data accumulates automatically, thus providing several interesting real-time statistics:
- Normalized results
- Averages
- Minimum score
- Maximum score
- Median
- Standard deviation
This wealth of data allows educators to fully leverage digital assessments to continuously improve the learning and teaching process.
By effectively utilizing these reports, Nexam users can analyze student performance in depth, identify shortcomings, and adjust their teaching methods accordingly.
Trend 5: Digital assessment to meet inclusion needs
According to Ministry of Education data, nearly one in three students benefited from an intervention plan in 2022-2023. [1]
In this context, it is crucial to adapt assessment tools to meet the specific needs of each student. On Nexam, for example, it is possible to add extra time for students with special needs and allow the use of key tools such as reading and writing aids.
By incorporating these features, assessment platforms contribute to creating an inclusive environment. To continue reading, discover how to promote equal opportunities through online exams:
AS THE EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE CONTINUES TO TRANSFORM, THE RISE OF DIGITAL ASSESSMENT, WITH SOLUTIONS SUCH AS NEXAM, PLAYS A CRUCIAL ROLE IN THIS CHANGE. THESE TRENDS HIGHLIGHT THE COMMITMENT TO MORE AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS, UNDERSCORING THE IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION TO MEET CURRENT EDUCATIONAL NEEDS.
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[1] https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2030745/hausse-eleves-secondaire-difficulte-plans-intervention