Gathering online representations of practice about assessment for use as a professional development tool: A case in progress

Gail Wilson, Rosemary Thomson, Janne Malfroy
Educational Development Centre
University of Western Sydney

The Assessment Snapshots digital resource at the University of Western Sydney is a current project to produce locally contextualised resources about effective assessment practice.  Assessment case studies showcased through the project offer insights into how individual teachers in the disciplines design assessment strategies which respond to the challenges of teaching and learning in the tertiary sector in the 21st century.  Resources produced are designed as online professional development tools for self-access by teachers and for use in assessment workshops and curriculum renewal projects.  The paper explores the rationale for using case studies as a form of representation of practice, and describes the processes taken by a team of academic developers to gather cases from individual academics, provides initial reflections on those processes, and proposes plans for using the resource and evaluating its effectiveness as a trigger for improvement in assessment practice.

Keywords: online professional development, representations of practice, case studies, assessment