5 Tips for Digital Assessment

1. Self-regulation is hard

The situation we are facing, requires amazing self-regulation skills from students. Children are spending their time on studying, often with the same technology they use to play videogames, communicate with their friends or watch Netflix. We adults know how tempting it is to catch up with social media when we actually should be working, so one can only imagine what sort of challenges children are experiencing. But this is also a great time to develop students’ self-regulation skills, through formative assessment.

2. Students may surprise teachers

Even in an inclusive class, there tends to be a number of students, who have special needs. Some students need more assistance with their reading skills, some have trouble in their capacity to concentrate but others, for example those with hyper-sensitivity issues, may find it actually quite relaxing to study remotely. Digital learning and assessment actually does make it possible to differentiate learning experience very effectively, and teachers should be ready to learn new aspects about their students.

3. Parents are not teachers

We all knew that digital learning is a thing of the future and we should be prepared for it, but most likely none of us thought that we might be forced into it in a matter of weeks because of a global pandemic. While parents definitely should be there for their children to ease children’s experience of studying in isolation, parents should not worry too much about learning outcomes. Once the situation stabilises, teachers will help the students catch up with learning. “Parents should also accept that their children might not want their advice on the same scale that they are ready to listen to their teacher,” Dr. Kirsi Wallinheimo reminds us.

4. The future is here

It is a bit of a cliché, but a crisis really is also an opportunity. Learning and teaching will not return to “normal” after the coronavirus pandemic is over, but things have changed for good. Teachers would be wise to use this time to learn about digital possibilities in teaching and assessment and brush up on their skills.This is a time to be brave and try new techniques and innovations with an open mind. “Many teachers are now seeing opportunity in technology even when they might have had a somewhat negative attitude towards it before”, Dr. Wallinheimo says.

5. Go easy with summative assessment

This is not a great time to do strict, summative assessment. Many children are experiencing pressure in their daily life, families are trying to figure out how to adapt to this new situation and teachers are testing new ways to teach. We all should have mercy on ourselves and concentrate on what we can do well with the technology we have in our hands in our present situation. It could very well be that learning through play and fun has never been more true. “With some students, especially with many in their teens, the main job is to try to keep up their motivation to study,” Dr. Wallinheimo says.

Author: Katia Al-Kaisi Finnish Education Advocator, Entrepreneur, making Finnish work in theMiddle East. Original published in Teach Middle East Magazine April 2020

Kirsi Wallinheimo (PhD (Education), MA )
Kirsi Wallinheimo is a University Lecturer in foreign language education at University of Helsinki since 2003. Her pedagogical and research interests include the implementation of digital learning environments in teaching and learning, playful approach to learning and digital online assessment. She is involved in many international networks and projects, especially within the European countries. Current projects are e.g ECML-project (Digital literacy for the teaching and learning languages), Virtual classroom simulation project and designing adaptive assessment for digital games. She is also a member of The Finnish Matriculation Examination Board.
Further details: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/kirsi-wallinheimo