Future of HE Assessment 2024

Tuesday 19th November 2024
9:30 am - 4:20pm
Virtual Conference

The Future of HE Assessment 2024 will explore the next steps in designing and delivering authentic assessment methodologies to support enhanced learning behaviours and competencies.

The Conference will:

  • Examine the latest innovation and research in embedding impactful authentic assessment into the curriculum

  • Analyse leading practice in developing assessment to drive improved learning behaviours and competencies

  • Discover new approaches to assessment design in the age of generative AI

  • Explore solutions on managing enhanced academic integrity and assessment security

  • Discuss how to leverage technology to support improved assessment design and implementation

Why Attend the Future of HE Assessment 2024 ?

Uncover new ideas and research on assessment design

Evaluate the effectiveness of your assessment practices

Prepare an action plan for enhancing your assessment methodologies

Confirmed Speakers

Dr Nick Watmough
Quality Enhancement & Standards Specialist
QAA

Dr Kay Hack
Principal Adviser (Learning and Teaching)
Advance HE

Dr Farwad Khaleel
Head of Global Online
Business School of Edinburgh Napier University

Professor Dilshad Sheikh
Chief Academic Officer
Arden University

Agenda

09:30 am

Chair’s Welcome Address

Professor Dilshad Sheikh
Chief Academic Officer
Arden University (CONFIRMED)


09:40 am

Supporting Enhanced Learning Behaviours and Desired Professional Competencies through Impactful Assessment Design

  • What are the intended learning behaviours and competencies we want students to demonstrate?

  • How is assessment design driving students to demonstrate desired skills?

  • Delivering a student-centred assessment framework to drive effective outcomes on peer and self-assessment

  • What are the characteristics of students thriving under a purpose-led assessment model?

Dr Kay Hack
Principal Adviser (Learning and Teaching)
Advance HE (CONFIRMED)


10:10 am

Assessment Design in the Age of Generative AI: How to Evolve

  • How do we embrace the opportunities of generative AI whilst maintaining academic integrity?

  • How does academic writing, submission processes and assessment design need to change?

  • The move to synoptic assessment that incorporates AI tools

  • Developing authentic assessment approaches based on real-life settings and foundational skills

  • Leveraging assessment design to improve AI literacy

  • Building clear policies around acceptable use and expectations in the assessment process

  • How do we support equity and accessibility as students use third party AI tools?

Dr Nick Watmough
Quality Enhancement & Standards Specialist
QAA (CONFIRMED)


10:30 am

Break and Networking


10:50 am

Where Are We on Inclusive Assessment Language?

  • Supporting students to have improved understanding and confidence on assessment terminology

  • Understanding causes of student anxiety and barriers to engagement when engaging with assessment processes

  • What does an accessible language structure look like?

  • Addressing common queries, complaints and inconsistencies faced during assessment processes

  • What progress has been made on inclusive dialogue and how can course leaders deliver an approach to continuous improvement?

Dr Cathy Minett-Smith
Dean of Learning and Teaching, Faculty of Business and Law
UWE Bristol (CONFIRMED)


11:20 am

Designing a Model for Optionality in Assessment

  • What does optionality look like in practice? Insights from the QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project

  • What are the views of student and staff on feasibility, practicality and utility?

  • Exploring existing pockets of innovation on optionality and the process in designing and implementing these approaches

  • Building a toolkit for the sector in embedding optionality into curricula

  • What could optionality mean for administrative burden, inclusion, student engagement and perceptions on fairness?

Professor Gabrielle Finn
Vice-Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students
University of Manchester (CONFIRMED)


11:50 am

Beyond Evaluative Feedback: Learning from Consequential Feedback

  • Shifting attention from the typical notion of evaluative feedback to learning from consequential feedback

  • Understanding what consequential feedback looks like in practice and how it can support effective authentic assessment

  • How can we notice and interpret the consequences of a learner's action through simulations using authentic audiences, objects, processes and tools of the profession?

  • Rethinking what counts as feedback for authentic assessment and how can we design assessment mechanisms around this neglected feedback information?

Professor Kathleen M Quinlan
Professor of Higher Education and Director Centre for the Study of Higher Education
University of Kent (CONFIRMED)


12:20 pm

Break and Networking


1:00 pm

Developing the Next Generation of Digital Assessment Tools: What Next on Utility?

  • Choosing appropriate digital assessment tools for your assessment processes

  • What the proliferation of generative AI means for how we use assessment technologies

  • How are assessment tools evolving and how can course leaders leverage the next generation of technologies?

  • What do staff and students expect from assessment tools and how do we address gaps in demand?

  • What students are saying on the learning experience and how digital tools can support approaches to authentic assessment

Laura Milne
Head of Digital Education
University of Chester (CONFIRMED)

David Kennedy
Dean of Digital Education
Newcastle University (CONFIRMED)

Farzana Latif
Head of Digital Education Systems
University of Leeds (CONFIRMED)


1:50 pm

Preparing Students for Expectations on AI Usage Prior to Assessment

  • Providing resources to students to understand which tools are both permissible and effective to use in support of their assessments

  • What ways can we provide opportunities for students to critically engage with AI ahead of their assessment?

  • How do we build resources to mitigate student worries and concerns over AI and academic misconduct?

  • Is there a standard toolkit all departments can use to build student confidence/awareness of AI ahead of assessments?

Matt Carl
Head of Library Digital Education
The University of Law (CONFIRMED)


2:10 pm

Break and Networking


2:30 pm

The Next Steps in Delivering High Impact Authentic Assessment

This panel session will mark a key checkpoint in exploring the progress made on authentic assessment, how practices are evolving and how authenticity can be enhanced further in assessment design. The session will consider:

  • Collaborating with students to drive resonance and meaning to assessment processes

  • Embedding wider stakeholders into assessment design to build a wider dialogue on feedback and review

  • Building students’ agency and confidence in actively participating in a discipline

  • New approaches to authentic assessment in practice and the pedagogical underpinning

Professor Kate Strudwick
Dean of Teaching and Learning
University of Lincoln (CONFIRMED)

Professor Sam Elkington
Professor of Learning & Teaching
Teesside University (CONFIRMED)

Dr Michelle Hawkins
Director of Learning, Teaching and Assessment -Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care
Anglia Ruskin University (CONFIRMED)


3:20 pm

A New Age for Academic Integrity? Rethinking Assessment Security

  • What counts as misconduct in the age of AI and how do we define the parameters?

  • Recognising the barriers to effective AI detection and exploring how we can embrace AI in the assessment process

  • How should assessment design be reimagined to support enhanced resilience against misconduct?

Dr Farwad Khaleel
Head of Global Online
Business School of Edinburgh Napier University (CONFIRMED)


3:40 pm

Designing Assessment for Flexibility and Reasonable Adjustments

  • Designing assessments to allow all students to demonstrate their learning  

  • Identifying key competence standards to maintain integrity and rigour

  • Supporting all students throughout the assessment process

Dr Emma Kennedy
Associate Professor in HE Learning and Teaching
University of Greenwich (CONFIRMED)


4:00 pm

Leading Authentic Assessment in Small and Specialist Institutions

  • The small and specialist landscape, how industry partnerships can help shape assessment

  • Implementation of an institutional framework to promote a cultural assessment change

  • Real-world, partnership-driven experiences that prepare students for industry

Dr Kate Wilkinson
Head of Teaching & Learning
Hartpury University (CONFIRMED)


4:20 pm

Action Points for Your Team and Conference Close

*Programme subject to change


Audience

This event is designed for all those involved in teaching and assessment research, design and delivery across the higher education sector. Those in attendance will include:

  • Directors of Assessment

  • Director of Learning and Teaching

  • Heads of Schools

  • Heads of Programmes and Assessment

  • Heads of Assessment Governance

  • Head of Quality Assurance

  • Educational Developers

  • Assessment Managers

  • Assessment Support Leads

  • Faculty Assessment Managers

  • Assessment Services Managers

  • Senior Lecturers

  • Lecturers

Secure Your Ticket

Public Sector (HE)

£345 + VAT

Attendance to Future of HE Assessment 2024

Private Sector

£595 + VAT

Attendance to Future of HE Assessment 2024

For group discounts and enquiries about your registration please contact us on enquiries@heprofessional.co.uk