Assessment can have a profound influence on student learning. Some students only seek to engage with that which is to be assessed. In other cases, assessment approaches can inhibit learning by assessing inappropriate things. Authentic assessments provide the means for teachers to influence learning in all the right ways and provide learning experiences that connect students with practical applications of the course materials. These type of assessments also involve active learning where students are motivated to make decisions and judgments and to learn by doing. In these slides, Ron Oliver discusses how teachers can design and use authentic assessments in their classroom settings. He demonstrates various forms of authentic assessment that can be applied to develop and assess differing levels of learning outcomes.

1. bringing assessment to life through authenticity
Ron Oliver
Navitas Learning and Teaching
Webinar
July 2019

2. teaching and learning
· many students only learn a fraction
of what they are taught
· how to be a more effective teacher?
· can assessment help?

3. assessment
· purpose
· determine achievement, grade learners, identify
weaknesses, support learning, motivate learning,
demonstrate achievement of unit learning outcomes
· common forms
· multiple choice, test, assignment, project, examination
· common issues
· reinforce wrong things, measure wrong things, distract
from learning, impede learning …

4. authentic assessment
· task-based
· real-world relevance
· sustained activity
· encouraging reflection and inquiry
· providing diversity of outcome
· generating a useful product

5. authentic tasks
· have real-world relevance
· are ill-defined
· comprise a complex task to be investigated by students over a
sustained period of time
· provide the opportunity for students to examine the task from
different perspectives, using a variety of resources
· provide the opportunity to collaborate
· provide the opportunity to reflect
· can be integrated and applied across different subject areas
· are seamlessly integrated with the assessment
· create polished products valuable in their own right
· allow competing solutions and diversity of outcome
(Herrington and Oliver 2002)

6. learning design framework
learning
tasks
learning
resources
learning
supports

7. levels of learning outcome
Level of
outcome
knowledge acquisition understanding problem-solving
Level of
Guidance
high medium low
Content focus information application evaluation
Content
Application
procedural interpretive creative
Learner
freedom
low medium high
Learning Form practising choosing designing
Learner
Preference
teacher-centred teacher-directed learner-centred
Engagement reading, browsing,
watching, describing,
reviewing
comparing, planning,
questioning, seeking,
organising
investigating, inquiring,
analysing, evaluating,
synthesising

8. designing authentic assessments
• directed tasks
• assessing knowledge development
• guided tasks
• assessing understanding
• autonomous tasks
• assessing problem solving and creativity

9. directed tasks
• used to assess content acquisition
• application of processes and procedures
• a task of fixed scope
• pre-defined outcomes
• typically one correct response

10. example
• unit in a Diploma of Building
• learning to prepare site reports
• established processes and procedures
• students given realistic site details
• required to apply processes and procedures
• develop a final report

11. guided tasks
• used to assess application of content
• application of processes and procedures
• requires judgment and critical thinking
• task with fixed scope
• established processes and procedures
• variable inputs
• multiple possible solutions

12. example
• unit in Employment Counselling course
• learning to prepare employment plans
• set processes and procedures
• variable inputs
• some judgment and planning
• authentic case details
• develop personalised employment plan

13. autonomous task
• used to assess application and understanding
• problem-solving
• applied processes and procedures
• well suited to groupwork
• problem statement
• task requires decomposition
• multi-faceted solution
• multiple solutions possible

14. example
• unit in Web design
• general principles to be applied
• processes and approaches to be followed
• complete task for a real client/setting
• demonstrate processes applied
• describe design and development decisions
• deliver working product with accompanying documentation

15. issues with authentic assessment
• unfamiliar to many teachers
• requires considerable planning
• requires tailoring
• requires resourcing
• potentially difficult to identify discrete unit learning outcomes
• marking can be time-consuming
• tasks can always be improved

16. advantages of authentic assessment
• interesting and relevant activities
• learning by doing
• practising workplace activities
• develops generic capabilities eg. communication, problem
solving, time-management, teamwork
• useful outcomes for portfolio
• provides opportunities for industry engagement

17. bringing assessment to life through authenticity
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