Strategic Line - IV Dissemination Activity : Global Assessment Strategies and Practices

An International Webinar on “Global Assessment Strategies and Practices” was organised on November 12, 2022, by IIS (deemed to be University), Jaipur as part of the dissemination activity of the Strategic line 4 of RISHII project, i.e. Innovative Assessment – Assessment that Promotes Global Learning. This workshop was organised at all three levels and invited participation from the University departments and other institutions of the region and country. The webinar received encouraging responses from all over the country and witnessed the presence of 258 delegates from different states, namely Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan.

The event was moderated by Dr. Himangini Hooja, Head, Department of Psychology, IIS (Deemed to be University), Jaipur, and one of the participants of the RISHII project. The webinar commenced with the inaugural session. Invocation ceremony for divine blessings marked the beginning of the session.

 Dr. Ashok Gupta, Chancellor, IIS (deemed to be University), delivered the welcome and Introductory address, extending a hearty welcome to the resource persons and the participants. He stated that IIS University is known for excellence in delivering value-based education to students and encouraging them to think innovatively in different walks of life. He also stated that the University particularly focuses on preparing students to become world- ready citizens. As a foundational aspect of society, education has always been responsive to societal changes. Higher education in India has been responding to globalization through the internationalization of the curriculum. All institutions need to develop dynamic assessment strategies which are at par with global standards. In contemporary society, more nuanced methods of assessing students’ progress may be accomplished through systems like rubrics which are multi-dimensional in nature. The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 has emphasized redesigning assessment procedures to bring our education system on par with international standards of the 21 st  century. He further specified the conception of the webinar to be based on the idea that the adoption of global assessment strategies goes a long way in improving teaching-learning practices and preparing students to survive and thrive in this globalized world. IIS University took the initiative to organize this webinar to train the stakeholders in implementing global assessment strategies for qualitative improvement in the educational process. He expressed confidence that this webinar would prove to be a catalyst in advancing the journey toward the internationalization of education.

 Prof. T.N. Mathur, Vice-Chancellor, IIS (deemed to be University), Jaipur also greeted the resource persons and the participants. He stated that to keep pace with changing times and to align with NEP2020, all higher education institutions must modulate their teaching-learning and assessment strategies. He hoped that the assimilation of ideas from the webinar would help in evolving new assessment strategies as per global standards. The inaugural session was followed by the inaugural address and technical sessions. The Inaugural address and Technical Session I were on the theme, “Assessment Strategies and Practices for the Successful Implementation of an Internationalized Curriculum”.  The resource person for this session was Prof. Sourav Pal, Former Director, IISER, Kolkata, presently HOD Chemistry, Ashoka University. Prof. Pal appreciated the theme of the webinar for its contemporary relevance. He emphasized that international elements should be embedded in the curriculum with due consideration to the cultural ethos of different countries. Cross-cultural views should be incorporated into the existing courses to make students ready for global challenges. Input from international students should also be taken while developing the curriculum. He stated that compartmentalization of different subjects is one of the major problems of higher education in India and courses of inter-disciplinary nature must be framed, which can be applied to solve societal problems. He further emphasized that networking and collaboration are important for the internationalization of the curriculum.

 Technical Session II was on “Assessment in English Medium Instruction: Higher Education Contexts across the Globe”. The resource person for the session was Dr. Samantha Curle, Reader, Applied Linguistics, Director, MRes Programme in Advanced Quantitative Research Methods, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom. Dr. Curl discussed in detail the selection, preparatory year, concurrent support, multilingual, and ostrich models of English medium instruction. She emphasized that assessment rubrics should be clearly defined. The assessment strategy should be systematic and interpret evidence of learning. She also deliberated on diagnostic, formative, and summative types of assessment. She raised a few questions which required thought on part of the stakeholders regarding assessment. The questions were related to the focus of assessment, as to whether we give importance to the content or language while assessing. She stressed that strategically the first language of students should be given importance in assessment. Critical thinking skills should be developed among students and assessment should reflect the ongoing acquisition of knowledge.

Technical session III was on the topic, “Innovative Assessment: An Evidence of Learning”. The resource person for the session was Prof. Navdeep Singh Tung, Former Dean, Academic Affairs & Social Sciences & Former Head, Department of Psychology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Prof. Tung highlighted that assessment for learning and assessment of learning are the two components of innovative assessment. He stressed that if there is no progress in the students’ learning then we should make efforts to analyse the causes of the

same. He discussed Bloom’s Taxonomy for designing questions and emphasized that standardized tests should be used for assessment. He shed light on the challenges related to assessment and strategies to overcome the constraints of dealing with differential learning among students.  

Technical Session IV was on “Using Rubrics as Assessment for Learning and Assessment for Learning”. Prof. Sahana Murthy, Department of Educational Technology, IIT, Bombay was the resource person for the session. She elaborated on the purpose of the assessment and asked the participants to share their viewpoints on www.menti.com. She explained in detail various techniques of effective assessment and discussed at length various tools of formative assessment like minute paper, just-in-time reading, concept mapping, peer instruction, and think-pair-share. She presented the idea of rubrics as a coherent set of criteria that define what is to be learned and what good learning looks like. She recommended that while designing rubrics we should stick to a four-point scale with indicators like missing, inadequate, acceptable but needs improvement, and target. She stressed that the assessment should reveal how well the students have learned and teaching should be modelled in such a way that promotes critical thinking among students.