Authentic Assessment as a Tool to Enhance Student Learning in a Higher Education Institution

Authentic assessment plays a great role in enhancing students' learning and makes them competent in their study area. Studies indicate that assessment is authentic when the tasks have real-life value and students perform real-world tasks. Therefore, this chapter shows how lecturers practice authentic assessment to enhance students' learning in a higher education institution. To achieve this, the authors used a phenomenological qualitative research design. An interview was used to collect data. The result indicated that lecturers are highly dependent upon traditional assessment methods, which have no significant contribution to the competency of students. The practice of authentic assessment methods as a tool to enhance students' learning is limited. Therefore, the authors can conclude that enhancing students' learning using authentic assessment in their study areas is untenable if the lecturers continue to utilize their current assessment practices.

Practical Implementation of Assessment Activities for Deep Learning

Student assessment would influence the quality of the graduates produced. However, many assessment strategies are found to inhibit this intention. As such, this chapter proposes a few assessment activities, along with their practical implementation, that may encourage deep learning among students in the learning of management accounting subjects. This chapter reviews previous literature, focusing on the characteristics of effective assessment activities that suit the nature of the Millennial. Five assessment activities, namely test/quiz, case study, field study, simulated enterprise, and classroom activities, are proposed. A questionnaire evaluating the preferences of the students and lecturers on how the proposed activities could be implemented was adapted. The chapter elaborates on the practical implementation of the five proposed assessment activities believed to engage students' learning so they become deep learners. A future research project is also put forth.

Flipped Learning With Peer Reviews in the Introductory CS Course

Today, university pedagogues in Finland are keen on applying flipped learning techniques to improve education and learning outcomes. In accordance, assessment moves to a more formative and flipped direction as well. Flipped learning implies assessment to be continuous, yet controversially, resources in education are decreasing. The dilemma can be partly solved by increasing self-, peer-, and automatic assessment, and in addition, the exploitation of learning analytics. Tampere University has addressed these pedagogical demands and challenges in computer science courses by developing a learning management system called WETO. This supports flipped learning techniques in a resource-wise way by enhancing assessment with new peer-review options, self reflection, and negotiations. This chapter highlights the proven and functional practices of formative assessment based on an introductory computer science course supported by WETO. It discusses further development needs and opportunities of learning management systems from this viewpoint.

Modern Educational Strategies for the Training of Philologists in Higher Education

The chapter reflects the strategic approaches to the system of higher philological education. Changing the learning objectives and criteria of its effectiveness requires the introduction of new educational strategies in the practice of training philologists, the development of teacher interactive strategies that meet the requirements of student-centered learning work in different age groups and involve an active dialogue between the teacher and the student. All this reflects the goals of modern educational policy aimed at the modernization of education, provides a high level of quality of education and meets modern trends of globalization, information, and humanization of education.

Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills

Nowadays students have desires for practical, individualized learning, immediate feedback, exciting and engaging instructional contents, advanced technology, and most importantly relevant information. As a result, most institutions are now adopting digital assessment to meet the students' demand. This chapter presents several digital assessment techniques and the respective tools. Challenges and opportunities for several types of digital formative and summative assessments are highlighted.

Formative Assessment in Higher Education

This chapter describes the particularities of the appreciative intelligence of university teachers in the formative assessment. Appreciative intelligence is the ability to identify the qualities and positive aspects of a person, and to harness them. In the educational field, the appreciative intelligence of the teacher consists of essential components: appreciative inquiry (research), appreciative advising, and appreciative mindset. The chapter describes the concept of appreciative intelligence, being presented different acceptances and opinions of the researchers. The second part of the chapter highlights the problems and contradictions regarding the appreciative intelligence in the educational field and analyzes the appreciative intelligence of university teachers in the formative assessment process. This chapter proposes an evaluation and training program of the appreciative intelligence of university teachers based on its systemic context. The chapter ends with solutions and recommendations, a conclusion, and future research directions.

Eportfolios and Open Badges for Open Recognition of Lifelong Learning Outcomes

The Chapter presents strategies for training Masters of Еducation students for the development of digital ecosystems in the open educational environment of Yenisei Siberia with the use of e-portfolio and Open Badges technologies through a special electronic course for students of blended learning model. The preliminary results obtained by the authors based on a Google-survey showed that students demonstrated a high level of satisfaction with learning using e-portfolio and Open Badges technologies in the multicultural digital environment of the Siberian region. This Chapter describes the experience of the School of Education, Psychology, and Sociology in use of e-portfolio technology in the evaluation of educational outcomes, reflection, professional development in the lifelong learning process of future teachers, and the introduction of Open Badges integrated with e-portfolio in the teachers' training course for Bachelor and Master's students.

Assessment as Learning

There are three types of assessment: assessment for learning, assessment of learning, and assessment as learning. Assessment as learning refers to the use of ongoing self-assessment, reflection, and deeper understanding. Within the entrepreneurial program of the initial vocational-technical schools, the role of assessment refers to the facilitation of the students' personality (commitment to self-assessment; tolerance to ambiguity, uncertainty, as well as creativity, self-reliance, adaptability, motivation to excel, leadership) that are expected to line skills for a successful entrepreneurial competence. This chapter analyzes the specific features of the assessment model for entrepreneurial education programs. The core of the model is an instructional dynamic and flexible strategy, based on integration formative and summative assessment. Thus, the course in entrepreneurial competence is divided into three modules. The finality of each module is measured by formative computer-based assessment tests.

Evaluation in Higher Education

Technologies of the 21st century have brought about a new crisis of significance, which is determined by materialism, expedient attitude, narrowness generated by the self-centeredness, lack of sense, and poverty of commitments. This state of affairs is also characteristic for the contemporary Higher Education, which is going through a decisive stage when it must rethink the communication schemes methodologies as well as the spiritual interaction of intelligence. Didactic processes are re-directed towards more interactive communication, learning spaces, and metacognitive strategies. University teachers, as the servant leaders of the successful education, have a special responsibility to develop competence for learning to learn and for social integration through a profession. Thus, the academics have a specific mission to demonstrate not only the deep knowledge, but also the spiritual intelligence. This chapter provides a novel model of spiritual intelligence raining of the Academic Staff. Conclusions and future research directions are provided.

Pedagogy of New Assessment, Measurement, and Testing Strategies in Higher Education

This chapter investigates correlations between learning theory and outcomes. Based on the hypotheses that in university pedagogy the assessment strategy should be interrelated with desired learning outcomes of the student, it is clear that assessment directly impacts student minds and behavior. Therefore, within the global context of assessment, measurement, and testing strategies, this chapter critically explores novel educational assessment methodology as a response to the following research questions: What are the main issues, controversies, and problems in the educational assessment? What are the most effective solutions for the development of life-long competence through an affordable assessment strategy? This study presents insights into the assessment theory concerning deviations in the acquisition settings between training and testing. It also provides an outlook for the potential of transfer assessment methodologies to metacognitive training of a particular target group.