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LITE Masterclass: Digital Fluency in the context of Authentic Assessment – Experiences of Digital Assessment (Hybrid Event)

Date
Date
Wednesday 6 April 2022, 12:30-2:30 (including a networking lunch)
Location
Mechanical Engineering Lecture Theatre B and MS Teams

Are you developing assessments for using in online and digital teaching? Are you considering how to assess learning in ways that are authentic to students’ own contexts?

 

We're excited to announce that Simon Thomson, Director of the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Innovation in Education, will deliver a digital assessment Masterclass this April. Organised by Samantha Pugh, Academic Lead for Digital Assessment, and run in partnership with the Online Educators Network, this interactive Masterclass examines the relationship between Authentic Assessment and Digital Fluency in the Liverpool Curriculum Framework. You can sign up for the event, and select whether you would like to attend in person or online here. If you select the "in-person" option, you will still have access to the online meeting and will be informed of the location once it is announced.

 

In this Masterclass, you will explore different approaches to digital assessment to plan and design assessments for your own teaching. To get the most out of the session, you should have a rough plan of the assessment method you want to develop together with the learning outcomes for your module.

 

This Masterclass is a hybrid event, inviting colleagues to join us on campus and remotely to participate in discussion. Lunch will be provided for participants in the on campus activity.

 

The Online Educators Network is a community of practice for colleagues who wish to share their experiences of online teaching, strengthen their practice and develop their skills in a diverse and supportive network. You can join our mailing list and stay in touch through the Fully Online Education Team.

 

More details are available below and you can sign-up for this here.

 

Liverpool Curriculum Framework

 

At the University of Liverpool both Authentic Assessment (Hallmark) and Digital Fluency (Graduate Attribute) form core elements of the Liverpool Curriculum Framework[1]. This framework is a point of reference for all Liverpool UG and PGT programmes as part of validation and revalidation.

 

 

 

Authentic Assessment: This requires students to undertake tasks which demonstrate meaningful and integrated application of relevant academic knowledge, skills and understanding. These tasks mirror those that students can expect to undertake as a citizen or graduate-level professional. ‘Authentic’, or mimicking real life, could refer to the format of the output (e.g. performance, report, video), the intended audience or the purpose of the task. In addition, authentic could refer to the nature of available resources, the collaborative nature of the task, its typical duration, or the potential scope for negotiation in the brief.

 

 

Digital Fluency: Digitally fluent graduates think critically and make balanced judgements about the information they find and use. They are able to effectively utilise digital platforms to connect, collaborate and communicate in academic and professional contexts and as citizens. Whilst maintaining a critical perspective, digitally fluent graduates are open to continuously developing digital practices and artefacts in their specialist subject areas and in organisational settings. They skilfully manage their digital identity across multiple platforms in a professional and responsible manner.

 

Through a combination of these curriculum elements, even pre-pandemic, we have seen the increased use of digital approaches in assessment activities. In this workshop we will explore some examples of digital assessment and discuss ways in which digital assessment can be used to enhance the student (and staff) experience.

 

 

Presenter Biography

 

Simon Thomson is currently Director of the Centre for Innovation in Education at the University of Liverpool. Previously he was Head of E-Learning at Leeds Beckett University and as a graduate of the University of Leeds he has very strong connections with the City.

 

He has been referred to as a "flipped academic" (Bruton, 2012) [2] with a track record for developing and supporting digital pedagogic practice in Higher Education through project-based and action research. His academic career has been dedicated to advancing teaching excellence (even before it became fashionable) and his work is entirely focussed on improving the staff and student experience in a learning and teaching context.

 

He has led on a number of funded learning & teaching research projects including a JISC/HEA funded OER project as part of the Phase 1 UKOER programme, an institution-wide pilot of tablet devices evaluating the impact of 1to1 tablet device use, a HEFCE funded project exploring the next generation of digital learning environments and more recently as principal project lead working with the British Council supporting six Peruvian Universities to ‘pivot’ to online teaching during the pandemic.

 

Simon was awarded an HEA National Teaching Fellow in 2014 in recognition of his work in Open Education and Digital Pedagogy. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, SEDA accredited in Embedding Learning Technologies and an Apple Distinguished Educator.

 

You can connect with Simon on Twitter @digisim or through his personal website: blog.digis.im

[1] https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/centre-for-innovation-in-education/curriculum-resources/

 

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/dec/11/flipped-academic-research-community-engagement