E-scape
Encyclopedia
E-scape is a project run by the Technology Education Research Unit (TERU) at Goldsmiths University of London
, England
that developed an approach to the authentic assessment of creativity and collaboration based on open-ended but structured activities. As such it is an alternative to traditional assessment methodologies.
project (2003-4) entitled 'Assessing Design Innovation' that developed an approach to assessment in design & technology that encouraged creativity and teamwork, and was based on a 6 hour structured coursework activity. The activity is broken down into a series of sub-activities that provide placeholders for students to record the development of their thinking in words and of the development of their prototypes in photographs. This approach has subsequently been adopted by OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations) in their Product Design GCSE. Phase 1 of the e-scape project looked at how ICT (Information and communication technologies
) within subject teaching and learning could be used to encourage the assessment of creativity
and teamwork. DfES and QCA
supported the phase 1 'proof of concept'.
In e-scape phase 1 it was established that the use of digital peripheral tools could enable learners to create authentic, real-time, electronic portfolios of their performance. The value of peripheral tools lay in their 'back-pocket' potential. Learners were not tied to desktops and workstations, but could roam the classroom / workshop. The peripheral digital tools enabled them to build an authentic story of their designing through a combination of drawings; photos; voice files and text. Their story emerged as the trace-left-behind by their purposeful activity in the task. The focus of phase 2 was to integrate these techniques into a complete system.
In e-scape phase 2 a prototype system was built that enabled teachers to run design & technology test activities in 11 schools across England. This resulted in 250 performance portfolios on a website that were then assessed using an Adaptive comparative judgement
assessment methodology based on work by Thurstone and the Law of comparative judgment
. Learners were enthusiastic about using the system in schools and the reliability of the subsequent assessments was significantly higher than is possible using conventional approaches. However, there were two limitations with the phase 2 system:
Firstly, it operated only in design & technology, and this raised the question of its transferable value into other subjects.
Secondly, the phase 2 tests had been run as a research project - with the research team operating the system in schools. This was not a scalable model for national assessment. It was necessary for such a national system to be operable by teachers in their own classrooms and this became the focus of the third phase of the project.
Phase 3 focused additionally on science and geography, with the work evolving through several steps:
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
that developed an approach to the authentic assessment of creativity and collaboration based on open-ended but structured activities. As such it is an alternative to traditional assessment methodologies.
Background
Project e-scape originated in a QCAQCA
QCA may refer to:* Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body of the Department for Children, Schools and Families in the United Kingdom...
project (2003-4) entitled 'Assessing Design Innovation' that developed an approach to assessment in design & technology that encouraged creativity and teamwork, and was based on a 6 hour structured coursework activity. The activity is broken down into a series of sub-activities that provide placeholders for students to record the development of their thinking in words and of the development of their prototypes in photographs. This approach has subsequently been adopted by OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations) in their Product Design GCSE. Phase 1 of the e-scape project looked at how ICT (Information and communication technologies
Information and communication technologies
Information and communications technology or information and communication technology, usually abbreviated as ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology , but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of...
) within subject teaching and learning could be used to encourage the assessment of creativity
Creativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
and teamwork. DfES and QCA
QCA
QCA may refer to:* Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body of the Department for Children, Schools and Families in the United Kingdom...
supported the phase 1 'proof of concept'.
In e-scape phase 1 it was established that the use of digital peripheral tools could enable learners to create authentic, real-time, electronic portfolios of their performance. The value of peripheral tools lay in their 'back-pocket' potential. Learners were not tied to desktops and workstations, but could roam the classroom / workshop. The peripheral digital tools enabled them to build an authentic story of their designing through a combination of drawings; photos; voice files and text. Their story emerged as the trace-left-behind by their purposeful activity in the task. The focus of phase 2 was to integrate these techniques into a complete system.
In e-scape phase 2 a prototype system was built that enabled teachers to run design & technology test activities in 11 schools across England. This resulted in 250 performance portfolios on a website that were then assessed using an Adaptive comparative judgement
Adaptive comparative judgement
Adaptive Comparative Judgement is a technique borrowed from psychophysics which is able to generate reliable results for educational assessment - as such it is an alternative to traditional exam script marking. In the approach judges are presented with pairs of student work and are then asked to...
assessment methodology based on work by Thurstone and the Law of comparative judgment
Law of comparative judgment
The law of comparative judgment was conceived by L. L. Thurstone. In modern day terminology, it is more aptly described as a model that is used to obtain measurements from any process of pairwise comparison...
. Learners were enthusiastic about using the system in schools and the reliability of the subsequent assessments was significantly higher than is possible using conventional approaches. However, there were two limitations with the phase 2 system:
Firstly, it operated only in design & technology, and this raised the question of its transferable value into other subjects.
Secondly, the phase 2 tests had been run as a research project - with the research team operating the system in schools. This was not a scalable model for national assessment. It was necessary for such a national system to be operable by teachers in their own classrooms and this became the focus of the third phase of the project.
Phase 3 focused additionally on science and geography, with the work evolving through several steps:
- creating subjects teams in geography and science
- development and trialling of tasks (science, geography and d&t)
- development of the technology to facilitate task evolution (authoring tool); to enable teachers to run activities in schools (EMS); and to manage the pairs judging (pairs Adaptive comparative judgementAdaptive comparative judgementAdaptive Comparative Judgement is a technique borrowed from psychophysics which is able to generate reliable results for educational assessment - as such it is an alternative to traditional exam script marking. In the approach judges are presented with pairs of student work and are then asked to...
engine) - running test activities (geography, science and d&t) in schools across England and Wales
- conducting the judging and analysing the outcome