Category: Assessment

Organized by
Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Abstract

MCQ examinations are often seen as a concession to modern-day realities of universities – a way of assessing large numbers of students, reliably, and without the hassle of hands-on marking. If the result is the reduction of our assessments to isolated fact recall, with a consequent loss of validity for the purpose of the assessment, then this is far too high a price to pay. It also greatly underestimates the potential of the ‘single best answer’ MCQ form to assess higher levels of thinking, reasoning and judgement. MCQs are not easy to write, but this short workshop aims to show that the effort required to write scenario-based, ‘higher order’ MCQs is well worth the benefits of broad sampling and automated marking, without having to sacrifice validity. Participants will also be guided through how to evaluate the quality of MCQs, including the use of relatively simple statistical data.

About the Speaker

Neville is a Senior Lecturer in the Medical Education Unit of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, where his responsibilities include the development and review of assessment philosophy and practices. He originally trained and practiced as a physiotherapist for several years, before completing a Masters of Education and subsequently moving into educational research. He worked for many years at the Australian Council for Educational Research, where he was involved in developing various school and university-based assessments, as well as overseeing the development and production of the Humanities and Social Sciences sections of the medical and health professional selection tests, UMAT and GAMSAT. Since joining the university in 2006, he has conducted assessment workshops for various educational and credentialing organisations, including several medical colleges, the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand, the Dietitians Association of Australia, the Australian Dental Council, and the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council. He has acted as an educational consultant to the Australian Medical Council’s programme of MCQ writing workshops, and is currently the Health Professions Education Representative on the DAA Dietetics Credentialing Council.

Sandwiches will be served with coffee and tea.

Organized by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Abstract:

It is clear that science, health sciences and engineering students need to be able to understand and engage with all stages of the scientific process to become effective graduates. However, many of our traditional assessments still focus on subject specific knowledge, rather than the broader skills and understanding necessary for scientific inquiry.

This seminar will explore how we can construct novel, valid tasks that assess each stage of the scientific process. It will focus on specific, pragmatic examples of assessments that can be adapted for the basic, clinical, and applied sciences and engineering. Through these examples, the seminar will illustrate how the nature of the assessment task can guide student behaviour and promote more effective learning.

The seminar will be relevant to any member of staff involved in assessing students in science, health sciences or engineering, particularly those looking for ideas to move beyond more traditional assessments. Anyone with more experience or expertise in innovative assessments is encouraged to attend and contribute to the general discussions after the presentation.

About the Speakers:

Dr Vikki Burns is Director of Teaching Quality Enhancement for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is currently visiting The University of Hong Kong on a Universitas 21 fellowship.

Dr Burns has recently rewritten the classic book ’53 Interesting Ways to Assess Your Students’, which will be published by Frontinus Ltd in 2015. This accessible book provides ideas and considerations for different types of assessment. It focuses on tips for practitioners rather than in depth theoretical discussions. As such, it’s the ideal companion for a new member of academic staff, or anyone who wants evidence based ideas but who doesn’t have the time to search them out from the primary literature.

Dr Burns is also on the management group for the University of Birmingham’s new Teaching Academy, and supports other academic staff to develop and evaluate their teaching practices. She has recently established a national network for Sport and Exercise Sciences departments at research-led universities to share good practice and build collaborations, and is looking forward to building more international links during her sabbatical in 2015.

Sandwiches will be served with coffee and tea.

Abstract
Assessment of performance-based tasks such as live presentations or clinical skills-based activities require sophisticated assessment practices. Skills-based activities require assessment and feedback processes for summative progress determination and/or formative advice for ongoing student learning. While these have traditionally been impression based or utilizing a rubrics approach to assessment/feedback, these may have been based on unclear, implicit or ill-defined characteristics that make understanding and implementation of the process incomplete and possibly lacking rigor. A key factor in determining student achievement in such tasks is examiner judgment.

In this seminar, we elaborate the process undertaken to induct performance-based examiners into standards-based assessment practices through a process of eliciting latent expertise and task performance criteria and their justifications. The overarching goal is to make these judgment practices explicit to students and peer evaluators for rigorous and transparent processes and feedback. Funding support from the HKU Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme for this work is acknowledged.

About the Speakers
Michael Botelho is the Faculty of Dentistry 5th year Course Director, a member of the Curriculum Development Committee and has coordinated the design and implementation of the competency based, Key Skills exercises.

Susan Bridges is with the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and the Faculty of Education. She works on innovation in learning and teaching. Her work with the Faculty of Dentistry supported implementation of OBASL focusing on curriculum alignment with standards-based assessment.

Professor Claire Wyatt-Smith is Dean (Academic) for Arts, Education and Law at Griffith University. She has worked on a number of projects, primarily in literacy and assessment, with particular focus on teacher judgment, evaluative frameworks and the literacy-curriculum-assessment interface.

ONLINE REGISTRATION

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms Ivy Lai , CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk.