Lydia Arnold

It’s been a busy time being ‘out and about’ at different events and giving talks. This is a richly rewarding part of my role where I can see and hear practice in other institutions, as well as sharing back some of the work happening in my own institution and some of my personal work. This aspect of academic community is so very important to seeking and getting challenge to your thinking to stop a stasis. 

In the last few weeks I went to Teesside University for the National Future Facing Learning Conference – questions that resonated through the days were: what does the future look like? what do we need to prepare? How do we navigate change? and how will technology trends interface with the academy? 

I was pleased to present, as well as attending the sessions of others. My time was, by invitation, focussed on authentic assessment. In a two-part presentation I worked with the brilliant Jono Thobury, who shared his work on podcasts as a mode of assessment. He makes it look so easy and I’d recommend his work for anyone who wants to get started with this mode of creating content.

I committed to share my event slides so here is the deck: 

As I look at the messages in these slides I am struck my how my views evolve and become more nuanced. Time, engagement and challenge means that my work in authentic assessment has evolved. I have become more conscious of my own changing views lately, but have also concluded that this is an essential part of academic life.

What was especially different about this presentation was:

1. An emphasis on our need to stop talking about authentic assessment and instead focus on what that actually means (what do you want your assessment to actually do?) 
2. A call for us to look at the evidence in relation to claims of authentic assessment as the solution to our assessment ills – it might not be that simple. By example – for anyone claiming authentic assessment can hold off the risks of AI, I encouraged some play with voice generating AI as well as text based systems (AI can now write and record your podcasts!).

Both of these points are within my new paper, published with James Croxford, asking ‘is it time to stop talking about authentic assessment’? – more to come on this! 

The slide deck is published here for event delegates and of course anyone else who would like to see what was said.