DESIGNING NEW ASSESSMENT METHODS THAT TURN IMMEDIATE RESULTS OBTAINED IN TESTS, INTO A CREATIVE LEARNING TOOL BY USE OF SMARTPHONE’S

Today, students are unable to immediately verify their learning during tests/exams as feedback is published after several days or even weeks. This is in particular the case for learning skills in vocational education and training, and in higher education in Europe. Usually educational institutions don’t have access to a high number of computer science labs where it is possible to run digital multiple-choice tests for all campus students. On the other hand, within a few years a lot of students will have access to cheap mobile phones with high-resolution pressure sensitive screens.

The European Commission has recently funded a KA3-ICT project that is going to use Smartphones to turn results of tests into a creative learning process. The project is going to develop a new evaluation model where test results for a class are turned into an active, creative and collaborative learning process by the use of immediate feedback:
• Verification feedback led by a teacher: why is this particular answer correct and why are the others incorrect.
• An elaborate feedback discussion run by students: the answers are displayed but they don’t know which are the (in)correct ones.
• An elaborative feedback discussion led by one student: the deviation from the correct answer without addressing why this is correct and the other ones are incorrect.

The mobile student evaluation system for Smartphones gives the teacher a new tool, allowing him/her to either give verification or elaborative feedback to individual students or groups of students immediately after a test. This is a key factor helping students to improve their skills by the use of active collaborative supported learning. Students will, when they still remember the questions in the test, learn why the correct answer is correct and why the other ones are incorrect. Thus, mobile technology provides new evaluation and testing criteria for education and training.

The new mobile student evaluation system is going to be a gateway to active learning for students that may be used for in-class laboratory experiments, but also for distance training purposes. Each student uses Smartphones to answer and mark multiple-choice tests with a number of questions. An embedded automatic marking system is included. The training method includes using cases and/or experiments demonstrating what to do, how it works, and what the deviation will look like. The new open mobile technology based evaluation services helps improving certification processes.

This article will outline the system design principles for using Smartphones as a creative learning tool in assessments. This includes a discussion of benefits and disadvantages by using apps versus webapps solutions.