Technology Enhanced Assessments – A Case for India CBSE – CAER Conference 2014 Akanksha Bapna, Ph.D. Evaldesign

Technology Enhanced Assessments – A Case for India

CBSE – CAER Conference 2014Akanksha Bapna, Ph.D.

Evaldesign

OUTLINE

Assessments in IndiaThe scope of technologySolutionsChallengesOpen Questions

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“Education is concerned with preparing citizens for a meaningful and productive life and Evaluation should be a way of providing credible feedback on the extent to which we have been successful in imparting such an education. Seen from this perspective, current processes of evaluation, which measure and assess a very limited range of faculties, are highly inadequate and do not provide a complete picture of an individual’s abilities or progress towards fulfilling the aims of education”

NCF 2005, P 71-72


Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)

Impacts 190 Million children in elementary education institutions alone

Combines scholastic and co-scholastic achievements

Collects detailed school-based assessments at regular intervals and records students’ formative and summative progress


Aim of CCE

“CCE helps in improving student’s performance by identifying his/her learning difficulties at regular time intervals right from the beginning of the academic session and employing suitable remedial measures for enhancing their learning performance.” – CBSE

What do we mean by learning performance?

How can we achieve this goal?


Learning Performance

Life Skills Content knowledge Critical thinking and problem solving


How can we achieve this Goal?

1. The right teaching practice

2. The right assessment

3. Timely feedback/reporting

4. Opportunity to bridge knowledge gap


1. The right teaching practice

“….places a lot of demand on teachers’ time and ability…” NCF 2005

India lacks 1.2 million qualified teachers


2. The right assessment

What is measured? Content and comprehension Co-scholastic achievement

How is it measured? Non standardized summative items Teacher’s observations, project work

How often is it measured? 3-4 times as formative assessment, twice as

summative assessments


3. Timely feedback and reporting


Sample CCE Report Card

4. Opportunity to bridge the knowledge gap

Minimum PTR 30:1 (reported average 43:1, ASER 2013)

Students mostly move along a topic together


THE SCOPE AND PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA


What can technology do?

1. Support teaching practice

2. Provide access to standardized assessments, and frequent, inbuilt assessment

3. Support quick feedback/reporting

4. Provide content to bridge learning gap, self-paced learning


Tablets in Schools

RCT – 10 schools, 600 students, 100 tablets

Classes 3 & 5

Content on YouTube, internet access

Baseline, endline assessments (Math and English)

Classroom observations



Technology in Schools

http://youtu.be/eT8zgbTa9FQ

Preliminary Observations

Students are VERY quick to adapt to technology

Increases curiosity (measurement challenge)

Parents are willing to pay slightly more (94% said Yes (n=156))

Need right incentives to maximize utility


What does research say?

Method of implementation is critical

Moderate average gains, but significant gains for weaker or older students

Needs to be a supplement and not substitute

Gains continue over moderate period

(Banerjee et al., 2007, Linden 2008)


Current Initiatives – Indian Entrepreneurial


Current Initiatives - Government


Challenges


Questions for Research

1. What platforms/technology combinations maximize learning?

2. What kind of question banks and adaptive algorithms will be needed?

3. What are the incentives needed to move towards technology for each stakeholder?

4. How do we disaggregate technological ability from knowledge and comprehension?

5. Does technology increase learning at all? If so of what kind and at what rate? What do we need to measure? How do we measure it?


Summary and way forward

1. India has seen a paradigm shift in assessments 2. CCE goals of improving learning performance

are unmet3. Technology can bridge the gap between idea

and implementation

4. The evolving ecosystem of research and innovation needs to be nurtured to promote development in the field of technology for education


Thank you!


Documents

Technology Enhanced Assessments – A Case for India CBSE – CAER Conference 2014 Akanksha Bapna, Ph.D. Evaldesign