Abstract:

Formative assessments or “assessments for learning” are challenging to perform in higher education, given the lecture form and the number of students present. We have developed and tested an assessment procedure where large student groups were given a two-hour assessment with immediate feedback, six times throughout one semester. However, the consequences of this immediate feedback are largely unknown, beyond making the students realise any misconceptions towards the specific assessment items. Ideally, formative feedback should provide each student with information on how to proceed, both with regards to content matter and to their own learning strategies. Our statistical analysis suggests that we are far from reaching this goal.

We have followed 109 students through the first introductory mathematics course at the bachelor engineering education at NTNU. By using an in-class assessment procedure, we gave students regular feedback on their progress throughout the course. In addition to working on and responding to questions during the class assessments, the students reported an expectancy measure before each assessment and reported the degree of satisfaction after each assessment session. The students also reported the hours of effort spent on the subject the last week before the assessment. They were also challenged to reflect over their own individual learning process.

The six assessments, as we have performed them in class, predict only 55% of the final exam results. Measurements of effort does not correlate with the result from each assessment. However, we see a weak but significant correlation for the sum of self-reported effort with the results from the final exam,.232 significant at a 0.05 level.

We conclude that good assessments are not enough if we don’t provide information about how to improve learning strategies. Both learning of the subject and acquiring new strategies for learning takes time to master and hence require continued effort from both students and academic staff beyond a single semester.

Keywords:

Feedback, reflection, learning strategies, change strategies, digital assessment, mobile technology.