Author: Simon Wilkinson, simon.wilkinson@nottingham.ac.uk
Author: Heather Rai, heather.rai@nottingham.ac.uk
JISC e-Learning Activity Area: e-Assessment
Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine
This case study illustrates...use of specialist software, an effect on learning, an effect on exam results, an effect on student personal development, student satisfaction with e-learning, innovation in learning and teaching, an influence on educational research, staff satisfaction with e-learning, staff personal development, a positive effect on retention, an influence on policy, use of resources, modifications to learning spaces, management of learning assets, an effect on social equality
Lessons Learned
Summary and Reflection
The experience at Nottingham would suggest that there is a need for greater involvement of all key stakeholders in online assessment from the outset. Experience has shown that some of the usual stakeholders in exams take a step back when IT becomes involved maybe due to the new language that this entails (servers, clients, logins etc.).
The growth every year in the number of summative exams taken online reflects the growing enthusiasm for this format and the success of its use so far. The process has been a steep learning curve but this has been a series of small steps rather than huge leaps. This approach is definitely recommended. Testing is very important at every stage to minimise stress and possible failures though there are often surprises.
On reflection, not much would be done differently with respect to the IT. Most issues could not have been foreseen before they occurred and rigorous testing has kept these to a minimum.
More research is needed within the field of CBA to investigate the new interactive question types (image hotspots, drag and drop labelling) mentioned here for their validity and reliability. The current authors also have a hypothesis that the drag and drop labelling question could be beneficial to dyslexic candidates because it reduces working memory load.
More info - http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nle/about/touchstone/
