Outcomes-based continuous assessment via integrated digital portfolios

Dr Shazia K Jan

Academic Director, OpenLearning

OpenLearning is a scalable online learning platform at the forefront of a new wave of education delivery.

• Founded in 2012
• Head office in Sydney
• Regional office in Kuala Lumpur
• 5 million+ enrolments globally
• 3 million+ learners
• 250+ education institutions
• Listed on ASX in Dec 2019 (ASX:OLL)
• Employees in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Canada, Slovenia, and the Philippines.

Our educational philosophy…

OpenLearning enables peer-based learning in a safe, supportive and facilitated learning environment through a fusion of content, activities and social interaction.

Social learning design…

Co-creation

Crowdsourcing

Managing Collaboration

Social presencing

Self-expression

Source: https://solutions.openlearning.com/whitepaper

5 Pillars of Social Learning Design

The platform enables a full spectrum of online learning activities that can engage and inspire students through a scalable, replicable, method of creating online courses.

Transformative learning

A fully online pathway program for students who…�

• May have just missed out on meeting requirements for direct entry to University.
• Have completed Year 12 (or equivalent)
• Don’t require a full foundation year
• Need additional support to bridge the gap between school and University

UNSW Transition Program Online (TPO)

Online learning with a difference…

• Our educational philosophy
• Our design and delivery
• Our assessment model
• Our approach to academic integrity

OpenLearning enables peer-based learning in a safe, supportive and facilitated learning environment through a fusion of content, activities and social interaction.

Issues of learner disengagement, teacher-centred and passive learning, a lack of sense of belonging, feelings of isolation continue to be commonly cited in literature on online learning (e.g., Hodges et al., 2020)

“Constructive alignment is a design for teaching in which what it is intended students should learn and how they should express their learning is clearly stated before teaching takes place.”�Biggs (2014). Constructive Alignment in University Teaching. HERDSA.   

Outcomes-based assessment…

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Constructive alignment is one form of outcomes-based assessment

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Benefits for students

• Students know what to expect, the outcomes are clear
• Students take responsibility for their work
• Students can identify gaps in learning easily
• Leads to deeper learning
• Improved quality of assignments and activities
• Holistic assessment

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The OpenLearning platform is designed to draw in evidence of learning for each of the outcomes, and teachers assess these based on performance standard descriptors for each outcome.

Designing for outcomes-based assessment…

Key steps…

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• Do not start with the content or topics you need to teach
• Establish learning outcomes
• Design learning activities and assessment to align with outcomes
• Deliberately collect evidence of learning based on outcomes
• Establish acceptable level of skill and knowledge for competency
• Grade relative to outcome rather than in comparison to other students
• Group and weight by outcome, not by task
• Provide ongoing constructive feedback

Mapping matrix of course and weekly learning outcomes with corresponding learning activities. Students are assessed on a weekly basis.�

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Continuous assessment model in practice…

Activities are tagged for auto-population of student portfolios

Learning made easy….

Learning made easy…

Student portfolios are automatically populated as they work their way through learning activities.

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optimal academic integrity

Academic misconduct and plagiarism is an ongoing problem across the higher education sector (Birks et al, 2020).

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Marking made easy…

Outcomes-based marking

Marking made easy…�

Student work appears automatically in assessment report for marking

Feedback and reporting…

Weekly marks and feedback for student review

A portfolio of evidence for life…

Assessment model…

Portfolio-based assessment of individual and group work

High stakes final interviews

Supervised assignments and exams

weekly constructive alignment

Research framework

Objective: To measure efficacy of pedagogical approaches used in the TPO driven and enabled by OpenLearning’s philosophy, strategy and platform.

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Hypothesis: The social learning design fosters motivation, self-regulation and a learning community. The TPO model cultivates a growth mindset.

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Methodology: Pre and post program surveys (Pintridge & de Groot 1990; Rovai 2002; Dweck 2006)

The future of work necessitates that learning inculcates employability or transferable skills and a growth mindset for lifelong learning (Deloitte, 2021).

Preliminary research findings…

Table 1. Mean values pre and post program (n=31)

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Table 2. Sense of community (n=31)

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*Chronbach’s alpha for motivation scales was <0.7 making the findings invalid.

Correlations amongst constructs and performance and further statistical tests will be conducted as more data is collected from additional intakes.

*Max value possible 80 (40 each per subscale)

From our students…

“The portfolio review and feedback process has made me more comfortable with university studies. This is because the portfolio has developed my ability to study independently and to plan my time.

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The TPO experience has helped me settle into university studies very quickly. Without this experience I would have been a bit overwhelmed…at first”

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Xinyi Shen, China

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Try free for 30 days

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Visit website

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Get in touch with the OpenLearning

partnerships team

Kaitlin Hartley

Senior Account Manager�kaitlin@openlearning.com

Scan me to book a meeting!