Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join us as we explore the dynamic world of higher education at the University of Aberdeen. In each episode, you'll hear insightful discussions with educators who share their practice, highlighting what worked well and what didn't. Whether you're an academic, supporting teaching and learning, a student, or simply passionate about education, this podcast offers valuable perspectives and thought-provoking conversations to keep you informed and inspire you to try something new. If you would like to contribute, please get in touch with the Centre for Academic Development as we’d love to hear from you.
INTRO [00:00:03] This podcast is brought to you by the University of Aberdeen.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:00:11] Welcome to our podcast series on assessment at the University of Aberdeen. I'm Professor Kirsty Kiezebrink and I'll be your host for the series and we're going to be exploring TESTA, which is Transforming the Experience of Students Through Assessment. Across these episodes, we're going to explore how TESTA has supported us to take a holistic, evidence informed assessment and feedback, and how it's shaping conversations about programme design and the student experience here at Aberdeen.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:00:39] So in our first episode, I'm joined by Doctor Mary Pryor, who's a Senior Academic Development Advisor and Doctor Chloe Alexander, who's a Senior Academic Skills Advisor in academic writing from the Centre for Academic Development. Together we're going to introduce and explore TESTA at Aberdeen. We're going to discuss what the process involves and reflect on what we've learned from working with programme teams across the university.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:01:06] In episode two, we hear from Bethany Parrillo. She was one of our TESTA students assistants from 2023 to 24, and a recent graduate in MA History and Theology. Bethany shares the student perspective on tester and reflects on what it's been like to contribute to assessment enhancement work.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:01:27] Episode three features Alan Grieve, who's a lecturer in the School of Education. Alan talks about his experience of engaging with TESTA at a programme level, and what the process revealed about assessment patterns, feedback and opportunities for change.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:01:42] And then in our final episode, we're joined by Doctor Jackie Hutchinson, lecturer in the School of Psychology, who shares her insights from the schools engagement with TESTA, including the impact on curriculum conversations and using the TESTA framework to enhance that existing practice. I really hope you enjoy the series and find the discussions, both thought provoking and practical, as we continue to enhance assessments at the University of Aberdeen.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:02:07] In this episode, I'm joined by Mary Pryor, Senior Academic Development Advisor, and Chloe Alexander, Senior Academic Skills Advisor and Academic Writing, who will introduce TESTA, explain what the process involves and share what we've learned so far from working with program teams across the university.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:02:26] Thank you so much for agreeing to take part in the podcast. I guess I just want to know from your experience, um, how do you think TESTA came to Aberdeen? What made us decide to take TESTA as a programme in Aberdeen?
MARY PRYOR [00:02:42] I think it was the arrival of our new Senior Vice Principal, who came from a university where he had been very involved in implementing TESTA, and he believed in it so much that he brought that enthusiasm, commitment to Aberdeen.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:03:01] And then expanding on that. So, absolutely, I think that's a really solid reason for exploring new things. So Chloe, I'd like to come to you to just I am as the expert on the actual delivery of it. For those people who maybe haven't heard about TESTA yet in Aberdeen, could you just briefly summarise for me and for them? What does the process involve if a school decides to embark on TESTA?
CHLOE ALEXANDER [00:03:26] Okay, so yeah, in short, the um, process involves um, obviously liaising with the Director of Education, the Head of Discipline for that programme and agreeing on the courses for the programme. Um, we look at, um, the courses as a sort of snapshot in time. So we go for usually the previous academic year. Um, I line manage some, um, student assistants who, um, are involved in the process as well. Um, and so they will collect data on the learning outcomes, the feedback and assessment, um practices within the each course on that programme. And so as a result, then we get a visual of each course, um, that we can then take to the programmatic review.
Um, maybe Mary wants to speak a little bit about the programmatic review?
MARY PRYOR [00:04:21] Yes. This is the chance for the staff to have their say. And as Chloe mentioning earlier, I think one of the really exclusive things about tester is that there is no external eye on the proceedings, that this is genuinely allowing the teaching team to discuss amongst themselves what forms and types of assessments they have across an entire programme, which can be a lengthy four year undergraduate program, or can be a much more pressured short master's program for lasting just one or maybe two years. So I think that's a real pointer of it.
And so the staff will come to the review meeting already having had a chance to look at their courses as they assisted, usually in the previous academic year. And it's interesting that many staff often say, “I've already started to think about this now in a way that I never had done before”. And so once they come, they're primed. They know they've already been brought into the process. So we're not starting from zero. And then they are allowed the luxury of a two hour period when they can talk to each other about what they do, discover exciting things that are different and sometimes, "oh, I didn't realise you did that. I seem to be doing something very similar. So let's talk about, um, or changing that or enhancing or adjusting it".
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:06:10] Fantastic. So it's really clear then on how that that process works from the sort of the staff side of things. How can students be, um, involved in TESTA?
CHLOE ALEXANDER [00:06:20] So we're really keen to also involve students as partners. And we're very keen to hear about students experiences on their course in terms of assessment, feedback, um, and how basically just accessible the course material is to them. Um, so we have a questionnaire that, for example, if we're doing an undergraduate program, we will circulate the questionnaire to third and fourth year students. So the students that have had more experience in these areas already, um, and we invite their feedback. Um, and it's quite interesting when we look at the data from the questionnaire and also the common themes that the staff have often spoken about, quite often there are recurring patterns. There's common areas, um, you often find that the student experience and the staff experience is actually quite similar.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:07:17] Fantastic. So I'm going to bring up what's known as the sort of swearing word of university, which is ‘workload’. Um, and I think in university, over every university there's a real desire to do things better, to move forward, to review, to reflect, enhance. But often the challenge is “how will I find the space because my workload so heavy?”. Can you maybe talk around a little bit your experiences of how can we or how do we support schools to to find that space? And is there a value to doing this?
MARY PRYOR [00:07:55] I think there is a value in doing this in that they will never find the time to have this sort of conversation unless it's part of a project, but a non-judgemental project. And I do think that's really important. And what we're doing is asking for two hours of their time that may allow them to go as far as reconsidering the amount of assessments that they are weighing in on.
The students within the students also have a workload problem. So this is not just staff, but as Chloe was saying, we can bring in the student voice on this and each person is often siloed, each member of staff is often siloed within their particular course without a clear understanding of the accumulative workload for students across maybe four different courses in a term. So the benefit is that giving up two hours of your time now might mean that you will decide radically to cut the amount of assessment you are giving to your students, but making the assessments you do a lot more meaningful, giving the staff a break from endless marking that may not be essential and give the students a break to have time to reflect on their learning, and not just on “how am I going to cope with all of the assessments?”.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:09:35] Fantastic. Um, and then just as a final, um, question, um, if, um, you were given, um, complete free reign, um, total budget, up to you, anything you wanted, is there any enhancements you would like to see to how we're currently running TESTA?
CHLOE ALEXANDER [00:09:58] Oh, that's a very good question.
Um. I think I think some I think the staff really appreciate that two-hour session. And I think given workload, um, you know, I don't think that's something- I mean, that's something it's very clear I think a follow up with staff, you know, something that could involve a follow up or would be good, um, maybe some simple things, obviously, you know, lunch or something like that. I know it sounds trivial, but, or maybe even some incentives for students to participate in the questionnaire.
Um, I think post-Covid there's a lot of questions concerning the sector in higher education. And I think TESTA is a really valuable instrument that can be used to reappraise, you know, assessment, feedback, learning outcomes. And so in that sense, I do think it's really important that budget is considered for it.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:11:02] Mary, any other ideas?
MARY PRYOR [00:11:06] We've seen a real change. Um, in our pilot year we had a more generous budget, so we were able to offer lunch for staff, and that did sometimes make it perhaps a more relaxed feel. Um, we did give some incentives to students, but I think those are nice-to-haves but I wouldn't say that they're essential. I think the main thing is convincing people it is worth coming along giving up that two hours of time. But I think the incentive there is many, many of the groups with whom we've worked have acknowledged that this is opened up an area of discussion that we've never had before, and I don't think we will be able to go back never doing again. So I think that to me is the valuable part.
And it's also asking students in a much more focussed, reflective manner than the National Student Survey, which is asking them to look at, um, their programs in a different manner. I think it's giving the students a voice, which we immediately juxtapose with the staff voice and I think that's quite unusual.
KIRSTY KIEZEBRINK [00:12:32] Oh, absolutely last question - just thought of it! How will Aberdeen University be able to know if the TESTA programme is a success?
CHLOE ALEXANDER [00:12:43] I think we already know it's a success in the sense that we've had two pilot years. We're now into our third year and I think we've really built on the lessons learned, for example, from the pilot year about streamlining um, the best ways to communicate and collaborate with teaching staff and also how CAD can best facilitate. And I think also just thinking about follow ups, long term impacts to TESTA, it's also our ability as CAD as an entity to support learning and teaching, how we can ensure that we can support these areas that we then have engaged with, build up a really good relationship with them um, so that these key issues around teaching, assessment, feedback, that they're not just something that then goes away when we go away and after the report, it's something that they continue to think about, and it's something that we can continue to support them with.
OUTRO [00:13:49] This podcast is brought to you by the University of Aberdeen.