"Very useful, informative & motivational"

Last week we finished the initial phase of our Bank on Success project based training initiative with 35 individuals taking part over the 4 days we ran our workshops.

The deal that in exchange for a free training day delegates would send back 2 x 10 question assessments seems to be a sound model and we'll be busy processing everyones' hard work and putting them on our web site over the next 6 weeks or so. These assessments just keep rolling in!  In fact the enthusiasm was such that many participants managed to complete one of the assessments on the day. We were also able to include images and hyperlinks in questions and feedback  using the template used for question design.

"An excellent session - I feel entirely confident that I could now go back and develop e-Assessments and also show the rest of my staff group how to go about it"

The opportunity to consolidate new skills learned on training days provided by the project model is what it's about really with the bank of questions that will become available to the sector an additional positive outcome but not an end in itself.

The feedback has been very encouraging and we'll be rolling the concept out in the new academic session so if you're from an institution we support in the West of Scotland and interested in finding out more about e-Assessment contact me or support@rsc-sw-scotland.ac.uk and we'll keep you informed.

"Just the right mix of theory & practice"

We've started to roll out our latest project based training initiative this week with a full house at the first of our 4 sessions. I enjoyed the day. It's good to work with teaching practitioners again as these days I seem to have had more contact with curriculum managers and senior staff in our supported institutions and it's good to get back to my roots.

Bank on Success is aimed at showing staff the most painless way to create eAssessments that can be uploaded and integrated into their learning platform. In fact processing and uploading can be quite a tedious operation that follows routine procedures that I'm not sure many teaching staff would want to do. The focus of our project is on the design of good, reliable eAssessments rather than the technicalities of getting them to work ( in my opinion a task more appropriate for a learning technologist unless the lecturer is a hybrid model with sufficient skills to ensure that ROI time-wise is practicable). Demonstrating the processes involved though is undoubtedly helpful to staff and allows them to see what's involved from start to finish.

If I'm honest I think e-Assessment is something that we've struggled to support effectively. Perhaps it's the term that puts people off as we've had plenty of offerings over that last couple of years but not many takers. In terms of learning materials it really is (technically speaking) eAssessment that provides interactivity. Looking at materials, even those that include multimedia is a rather passive activity and it is the activities such as web-quests, crosswords and quizzes that engage learners and provide the interactivity. All are technically forms of eAssessment. Maybe finding and alternative name for these types of activities that form such a critical part of the learning process is needed. I'll get my thinking cap on!

Anyway feedback from the day was great and my colleagues and I are greatly encouraged by the positive response we've had to the initiative so far.

Bank on Success - more information