Conference Themes

This conference is being organised as part of the Re-engineering Assessment Practices (REAP) project (see www.reap.ac.uk), a £1m initiative funded by the Scottish Funding Council under its e-Learning Transformation initiative. Focusing on assessment for learning in tertiary education the conference has three themes to be addressed through keynotes, case studies and structured discussions.

1. Assessment and the first year experience
2. Great designs for assessment
3. Institutional strategies (designs) for assessment

The REAP project and the Conference

The goal of the REAP project is to redesign assessment practices to support the development of learner self-regulation and lifelong learning skills. A range of innovative case studies of the application of new technologies to support learner self-regulation are being developed and evaluated. Two key ideas in REAP are that students should learn to become self-assessors of their own work and that formative assessment and feedback are dialogical processes that occur through interaction and discussion. The online conference aims to test and explore these ideas further.

Conference Aims

This Online International Conference aims to:

• Bring together a network of experts/practitioners interested in moving assessment theory and practice forward.
• Compile a collection of engaging, peer-reviewed case studies on assessment and technology-supported assessment
• Discuss how current theories and principles associated with assessment and feedback are reinforced or disproved by these case studies
• Disseminate the work of the REAP project

Conference Methods

Delegates participating in the conference will be able to review all submitted case studies, while discussions will focus on a selection of around 15 case studies. Conference activities will include:

• Keynote presentations with opportunities to ask questions in both scheduled chat sessions and through asynchronous discussions;
• Scheduled chat and asynchronous discussions around selected case studies, with facilitators presenting their reflections on the match or mismatch with assessment theories and principles, and authors and participants responding.

Conference Outputs and Publications

The REAP project team will establish a conference archive that will include:

• A repository of case studies of assessment practice and theory
• A digital archive of conference discussions
• Indexed listing of assessment related resources
• Listing of contributors

This archive will serve as an open research resource cataloguing current thinking that can be mined for position statements, debates, theories and case examples of practice. The conference will also lead to the development of shared publications in journals and books.

Conference Case Studies Submission Guidelines

Please submit your case study (4 pages max) by 14 March 2007 for discussion at the conference, In MS Word 2000 or higher to: reapconference@inspire-research.co.uk. Contributors who wish to participate in discussions of their case studies must be available during the period 29th to 31st May 2007

An expert panel will review all submissions. Up to 15 case studies will be highlighted for discussion as part of the Online Conference.

The case study should include contact details, your institution/company, and identify which conference theme(s) your case study addresses. The case study should also describe:

• discipline (generic, discipline/subject specific),
• context (country, educational system, institution),
• learners (type, level, numbers, location),
• theoretical framework or principles underpinning the implementation, design or strategy
• pedagogical intent of the assessment implementation, design or strategy,
• drivers for the use of this assessment implementation, design or strategy,
• how the implementation, design or strategy was put into practice,
• materials and methods used
• outcomes and evaluation in terms of success, enablers and barriers.

For case studies against Themes 1 and 2 it would help if you could reflect on how your submission relates to assessment theory and principles, as identified by authors such as Chickering & Gamson, Gibbs & Simpson, or Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, Boud. We would also be very interested to hear from authors who would like to submit their own model or set of assessment principles or who might like to criticise current attempts at defining principles.

Important Dates

Submit case study: 14 March 2007
Notification of acceptance: 25 April 2007
Registration deadline: 20 May 2007
On-line pre-view of case studies: 24-29 May 2007
International Online Conference: 29-31 May 2007
Publications from the Online Conference: provisional date August 2007

For more information about the REAP conference please contact Dr Rachel Harris, Inspire Research Ltd ( reapconference@inspire-research.co.uk).