In a time where technology has been drastically changing, modifying and reshaping everything in the spectrum of education, can assessment be far from such influence?
The answer to such a question is a starking ‘No’ as it too had many anomaly and issues that had to be addressed and reformed. Thanks to technology that if not all, certain big issues of students’ assessments are fast getting reformed at an ease and efficacy. If evaluated carefully, one will find technology has made assessment more objective, quick, scalable and accurate. And much of this credit goes to the idea of including diversified technologies into the area such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Computing, Cognitive Analysis, Social Collaborations, Big Data & Data Analytics, Predictive algorithm and many more to track talent assessment space and paving way from enhanced employer as well as employees experience.
The reason why these technologies are assisting one in the area of assessment is because it presents diverse opportunities within the talent assessment space and assists in paving a way to enhance employer as well as employee experiences.
Apart from the benefits that technology is presenting, another pertinent area to note in the 21’st century assessment is that it is slowly breaking the notion of correct and incorrect. It goes beyond it due to the integration of technology as many new facets surface out to make students assessment more worthwhile. As of now the rate at which the area of assessment has been growing, one may well see an enormous growth by 2020. So, let’s delve into some changes that have come in the area of assessment due to the integration of technology.
1.Traditional use of paper and pencil tests is slowly getting outdated as most of modern day education is fast shifting towards digital and assessments is no exception.
More in-depth analysis today is made in analyzing what’s going on in a students’ mind rather than just evaluating whether a student answers a question correctly. Say for instance, a student may take a longer time to respond to a question and this is easily measured by computer devise. So, while assessing the outcome of students, a teacher is well aware on which questions the students had taken a longer time to respond and which question they had fast guessed or responded.
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2. Computers have the ability to track which question a student first clicked on, highlighted or re-read during an assessment.
Say there are instances where a student first clicks on an answer then if unsure about it, revises the same question to re-answer it. This is effectively recorded in the computer and a teacher can easily view such action of the student and evaluate what the students are thinking and if they need further instructions on the lesson.
3. Student assessment has become much instantaneous these days and students are also provided instant real-time feedback on their work.
This can help students see right away where they went wrong and in case of doubts on the questions also clarify it with the teachers.
4. Using gamification to add fun to the concept of assessment as it makes assessments immersive and provides in return holistic feedback about the candidate.
Say when students know that they are being evaluated, they become cautious and at times nervous while answering to the questions. But in the case of gamification, the students get engaged complete the task in the best possible ways.
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Although such changes are not taking place drastically across institutions yet, EdTech has started to greatly influence the way students’ assessments are done.
So, what is your take on it? How do you think integration of technology has helped the assessment process?
