Using Active Engagement Assessments (AEA) for active learning
Using Active Engagement Assessments (AEA) for active learning
Patricia Perlman-Dee
What is the idea?
Traditional assessment for learning, provides information about student achievement at a certain point in time, but often has little effect on learning. However, assessment as learning develops and supports students’ metacognitive skills, so thinking about thinking is crucial in helping students become lifelong learners (Dann, 2014). Therefore, creating assessments using ‘active engagement assessments’ (AEA) creates an active and engaged learning process that caters much more for diversity amongst different student’s learning styles. This could be put in contrast to arguments that in-class participation needs to be carefully considered for different learning styles (Crosthwaite et al., 2015).
By making ongoing smaller exercises, activities, projects and role-plays to be summative assessments instead of formative assessment, students’ level of engagement and learning process is much more active learning.
Why this idea?
In the teaching environment where words like ‘flipped classroom’, ‘hybrid teaching’ and ‘lifelong skills’ are constantly buzzing, many educators find themselves with common problems;
- to get the students to engage with the set material, both pre-read and ongoing;
- to get students to prepare for workshops and seminars; and
- the cramming and panic studying before the final exam.
These are not new problems, but they certainly have become more noticeable and created a larger impact on student learning over time.
The usage of AEA as summative assessment will make the majority of students engage with the material and therefore undertake an active form of learning. Students do not hesitate to engage because by doing the set task, this will contribute to their final grade. There is a reward for engaging with the material and to complete the set exercises. We have found that the reward approach works a lot better than a ‘penalty’. Students do not seem to be too bothered about being ‘found out’ of not having done a set exercise as there is no immediate implication of this behaviour and at this stage – they still think they can ‘cram’ for the exam.
A number of surveys have been done by the author on students’ perception of their own learning, having completed AEA on specific courses. For example; A number of quizzes were compulsory on a specific course. Over 71% (20/28) of the students stated they would have been less likely to do the quiz if it didn’t impact their overall grade. What was even more telling was the fact that 95% of the students felt that making the quizzes part of their grade was useful for their overall learning, implying engagement fosters active learning.
How could others implement this idea?
The author has used many types of summative engagement exercises in her courses. The academic literature (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004) discusses 11 conditions under which assessments support learning, where two are particularly relevant; Co