Project PRAiSE

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Promoting Reliable Assessment in Student - centred Environments (PRAiSE)
Project leader
Assistant Professor Zarrin S Siddiqui


Project Description
Using innovative assessment strategies with a focus on e-assessment and formative assessment this project will contribute towards better teaching practices among academics, development of generic skills including learning skills among students and will provide more opportunities for feedback and out of class learning

The project provides opportunities for academics to share best practices in assessment by:

a. promoting exchange of knowledge related to best practice in assessment in health professions education with a focus on improved learning through reliable and valid assessment and

b. enhancing the capacity of academics to understand and implement effective assessment practices.

This was achieved through faculty development activities (face to face and online) and trial of new forms of assessment in units taught at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences during the grant period. While the project is targeted at the schools involved in teaching at one Faculty the project has potential to be catered to a wider community of academics at UWA and other institutions of higher learning. There is already evidence in literature suggesting success for similar projects and how these projects have potential to travel to other curriculum areas and larger group of teachers. Similarly e –learning with the help of community of practice is considered efficient and stimulating for academics and specially when combined with short face to face meetings.

Activities
1. Assessment Literacy Survey to assess the practices and perceptions of Faculty members about assessment.
2. Workshops

Assessment in Problem based Learning
Writing good test items.
Defining learning outcomes and their alignment with assessment
Characteristics of an effective assessment
Writing test items and use of item shells
Developing table of specification for an examination
An introduction to feedback models PRIME & SPRAT in performance based assessment
3. Development of resources
Softwares have been purchased to develop online modules on assessment. In the initial proposal we planned to create a CD with all the resources related to assessment however later it was felt that it might not be cost effective to create a huge number of CDs where we cannot update or add any further resources. Therefore a WebCT unit has now be created with a variety of resources at http://webct.uwa.edu.au/webct/logon/645235749021

The resources include

Online modules
Web links to resources available on web
Published material from indexed journals
Discussion board
Conference updates

Any Faculty member at UWA can request access to these resources by contacting the project coordinator.










4. Trial of new assessments.
New forms of assessments were trialled in three units.

Online Modified Essay Questions in Dentistry A/Prof. Millicent Taylor & Zarrin S siddiqui

Modified Essay Questions were trialled in the unit on Integrated Dental Practice which were administered online and students had a chance to identify the learning issues and respond to the questions after researching the issues. Student feedback was collected through online feedback .

There were seven workshops instead of six that were facilitated during the grant period but attendance was very low. Yet there has been a demand for running the same earlier next year.

There were two indicators of success; Student feedback and sustainability of the innovations. As such the trials were successful in terms of student feedback.
The Online Modified Essay Questions project in Dentistry will continue and it is anticipated that it will be incorporated in other units. At the moment Dentistry Assessment Committee has decided to carefully review assessment for all the units across the five levels of the course.

Online formative assessment in Psychiatry A/Prof Jonathan Laugharne & Zarrin S Siddiqui

Students are required to participate in online assessments. While the marks do not contribute towards the final score for the rotation, it is mandatory that they appear in these assessments and pass them. There is no limit on how many times they attempt these assessments. All of the assessments provide immediate feedback to the students and an explanation about the correct response.
Student feedback has been overall positive and discussed at Undergraduate Teaching Committee. The Committee has recommended continuing with online formative assessments and has suggested improving the formats of assessments using audio and video clips.

Collaborative assessment in Dentistry A/Prof. Lena Lejmonowski & Zarrin S Siddiqui
At the end of Diagnosis Management Planning Test which is an integrated examination, a follow up session soon after examination was arranged where students were given a chance to pair up with a peer and resubmit answers as a pair to randomly picked questions from DMPT.
A pre trial survey was conducted to seek student consent to participate in the trial and their views about collaborative assessment. Twenty five students consented and participated in collaborative assessment activity in June 2009.


Collaborative Assessment in Dentistry was received with mixed feedback.

I found it this useful and do not feel like I was disadvantaged through the discussions. Our answers were quite similar to my own effort but filled in gaps of basic things I missed. It was reassuring. I would be happy for this to be my assessment in conjunction with the oral exams.

Although all the students enjoy this experience and found it a useful exercise there were three students who did not perceive it as a useful assessment exercise.

I do not think this is a fair representation of each student involved, rather an average of the two. It may not work. The better student may decrease in their overall class position

Conclusion
The focus on assessment as a means to an end and not an end in itself has been the major impetus for this project and as is observed from the student feedback that students see formative feedback as a positive learning experience not just as an assessment. This will promote use of similar assessment practices among academics.

The online resources created will further support academics in designing formative assessments and use of computer assisted assessments.

Acknowledgments
A/Prof Naomi Trengove
 Assoc. Dean Teaching and Learning
A/Prof Sandra E Carr 
 Interim Director, Education Centre
Prof. Jeff Hamdorf
 Ex. Director, Education Centre
A/Prof Jonathan Laugharne
 School of Neurosciences & Psychiatry
A/Prof Millicent Taylor
 School of Dentistry
A/Prof Lena Lejmonowski
 School of Dentistry
Assistant Prof. Sue Miller
 Education Centre
Fiona Leece
 Education Centre
Erica Yeh
 Education Centre
Ully Fritsch 
 Education Centre
Mark Gallop
 IT Services
Steven Choy
 IT Services
and all the students and staff who have participated in various activities related to this project and provided feedback





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