Birmingham PIM – emerging themes

1 March 2019

Many thanks to all who were involved in the BALEAP PIM on Assessment which the Birmingham International Academy, University of Birmingham had the pleasure of hosting on Saturday. We hope that all speakers and attendees enjoyed the day. Special thanks from BALEAP to Lorraine Mighty and team for organising the day.

The slides from the presentations/workshops will be made available on the BALEAP website in due course. In the meantime, for colleagues who were unable to attend, please see below some key topics/insights/questions that were collated from the sessions. You can also find more information on what was discussed throughout the day on Twitter by searching for #BaleapPIM_BIA.

• How do you take into consideration stakeholders (EAP tutors, subject specialists, corporate interests, parents and students) when developing assessments?
• There is a strong interest in embedding assessment across programmes rather than at the end of them.
• ELT has to wake up! – How do we balance inclusivity with assessment requirements? Are we unintentionally putting up barriers for neuro-diverse students?
• Audio-feedback – which students benefit?
• How do we make reflective writing engaging and accessible?
• Recorded lectures and print outs of PowerPoint slides – Do students still need note-taking skills?
• How do we develop assessment literacy in our EAP professionals?
• Do we ask our students to input into their feedback?
• Students can be a useful resource to gain insight into assessment criteria and how they perceive them.
• It is useful to ask academics and students their perception of the validity of their assessments.
• We need to communicate clearly to students what we mean by critical thinking, academic integrity, and the requirements of academic writing by relating them to the future professional practice of our students.
• Addressing the problems of plagiarism with a Reading-into-Writing exam format
• Insights on how open book exams can be secure, authentic and motivating – using an ‘exam test pack’ in a writing exam
• E-portfolios can be effectively used to assess both the product (e.g. an abstract) and the process (including self-reflection, peer review and tutor and subject-specific feedback).
• Do we need to change the way we assess students in light of the developments in Google translate?
• Can machines substitute humans in assessing paraphrasing?

No doubt discussions on these topics will be ongoing in our departments, on the mailing list and at the BALEAP Conference in Leeds as we all continue to develop and share our assessment literacy.

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