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Week 19: Assessing outcomes in higher education
A new assessment of learning in higher education will be invaluable to a global learning community that is committed to improving outcomes for all learners.
Imagine a global test that evaluates what higher education graduates know and can do. Imagine it’s valid across diverse cultures, languages and institutions. Now imagine that, rather than rank institutions, it actually evaluates the quality of teaching and learning in higher education.
Sceptics might say it can’t be done, but as Daniel Edwards explains, ACER with consortium partners has shown it’s feasible. ACER’s work on an ambitious project, the Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO), for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is now finishing the pilot stage, says Daniel, a Senior Research Fellow in the Higher Education research program.
It’s a team effort, explains Daniel. The team, led by Hamish Coates and Sarah Richardson, includes Trish Freeman, Eva van der Brugge and Daniel, as well as Jacob Pearce and Rebecca Taylor in the Assessment and Reporting research program, and Alistair Dawes with information technology support. John Cresswell from the International Surveys research program has been involved from the start. ‘The process to develop and manage AHELO is huge,’ says Daniel.
For a pilot program, it’s pretty big. The objective of AHELO is to test discipline-specific skills of final year economics and civil engineering students and generic skills of students from a range of disciplines. Fieldwork ended in June 2012 and comprised 25 field implementations in 17 countries. In total, 23 000 final-year university students participated, all of whom completed a test as well as a questionnaire about their learning experience. In addition 5000 academics completed questionnaires about their teaching and 252 institutions reported on the context in which their students study.
One of the countries which participated in AHELO is Australia, and Daniel is managing the participation of Australian universities. Students and staff from 11 universities have contributed to the validation of the engineering assessment, with eight Australian engineering schools and nearly 200 students taking part in the full-scale piloting of the project.
‘The goal,’ Daniel says, ‘is a fully fledged AHELO.’
Now that’s very big.
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Week 52: State of the art psychometric and statistical analysis
Week 51: Assessing civics and citizenship
Week 50: International research into teaching and learning
GOAL 1
Learners and their needs
every learner engaged in challenging learning opportunities appropriate to their readiness and needs
GOAL 2
The Learning Profession
every learning professional highly skilled, knowledgeable and engaged in excellent practice
GOAL 3
Places of learning
every learning community well resourced and passionately committed to improving outcomes for all learners
GOAL 4
A Learning Society
a society in which every learner experiences success and has an opportunity to achieve their potential
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Pursuing Quality and Equity through Evidence
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