L7 1 3

=Students are able to integrate previous experience and knowledge into course activities and tasks. =

Evidence
Assessment programmes should be designed to support students in achieving the learning objectives. Learners build capability progressively given opportunities for feedback and reflection. Policy and guidelines should encourage the use of a mix of assessment techniques throughout the course and encourage the use of challenging tasks to motivate performance and learning.

‘Effective teaching not only involves imparting information and understandings to students… but also involves assessing and evaluating students’ understandings of this information, so that the next teaching act can be matched to the present understanding of the students’ (Hattie & Timperley 2007). Part of the feedback process is enabling teachers to understand the effectiveness of their teaching. Teachers can devise activities and questions that provide feedback to them about the effectiveness of their teaching, particularly so they know what to do next. Assessments can perform all these functions (p. 102).

Kolb (1984) describes the spiral of learning from experience. His ‘experiential learning theory’ explains that learners need to ‘learn how to learn’ and that by consciously following a cycle of experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting they can increase their learning power. Authentic experience is the starting point for the cycle of learning.

Evidence suggests that e-assessment can provide assessment that is more authentic – through the use of e-portfolios, reflective diaries, blogs, or virtual scenarios.

Quality assurance and staff training in the design and delivery of e-assessments need to respond to these new developments. Also, examination regulations need to be revised. The regulatory bodies in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland are producing regulatory principles and guidance for e-assessment. http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/Final_regulatory_principles_document_-_PRINTED.pdf

Resources
Evidence of capability in this practice is seen through course and programme designs that provide students with authentic and personally relevant contexts for their learning. E-learning technologies and pedagogies should be flexibly designed so as to allow incorporation of student experience and knowledge.