SUPPORTING ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK PRACTICE
EAT can be used with staff and students to explore conceptions of, and engagement in, assessment.
The EAT framework asks students the extent to which they engage in each sub-dimension of practice (from 1 minimal engagement to 5 maximum engagement). Students may also use the framework to indicate their feelings of the way the course is designed .
Staff can use the tool to explore the extent to which assessment is enabling student engagement.
For a full discussion of ENGAGEMENT IN ASSESSMENT USING EAT and using EAT as an assessment engagement tool see Evans’ and Zhu’s (2023) The Development and Validation of the Assessment Engagement Scale.
EAT can be used to explore students’ perception of their engagement in assessment and how this relates to how they do academically, and can plot the impact of changes in student engagement on outcomes.
The relationship between engagement and attainment is complex but Evans et al. (2019) have been able to establish the predictive capability of EAT. In certain disciplines, student engagement was an accurate predictor of attainment.
The tool can also be used as a professional development tool for staff to identify priorities in assessment and alignment between teams in supporting student engagement in assessment.
The ‘EAT Wheel’ shown here, and downloadable here as a PDF includes each sub-dimension with a scale of 1 to 5. Whereby 1 = lack of engagement to 5 = full engagement from the student perspective, and for the lecturer version, 1 = assessment design does not support student engagement to 5 = assessment design enables students to fully engage in assessment and feedback practices.
PRACTICE ACTIVITY
One of the most straightforward ways to use the EAT Framework is as a means of focusing attention on those areas of an assessment which would have the greatest impact if they were enhanced in some way.
Activity: Consider an assessment with which you are involved, either as the lead/designer, or as a co-assessor/marker, or as learner support. Or alternatively, an assessment which you yourself have experienced as a learner.
For each sub-dimension, rate the assessment on a scale of 1 (not evident, needs a lot of development) to 5 (well developed and highly effective). Don’t overthink it, but go with your first instinct for each sub-dimension. When you have finished you should have a diagram that might look similar to this:
click image to enlarge
– Pick one sub-dimension that you rated highly (e.g. a 4 or a 5), and reflect on what characteristics of the assessment, or assessment and feedback process, made you give it that rating.
– Identify one sub-dimension that you rated poorly (e.g. a 1 or a 2), and reflect on what aspects made you give it that rating.
– Think of some activities that you could undertake to enhance this aspect .
– Consider ways of involving students actively in that process of enhancement.
Could you engage them as co-designers or in revising the assessment, or just involve them more actively in understanding for themselves the parameters of the assessment?
This exercise is a good introduction to EAT as a framework, and works well as a staff professional development activity. It helps to encourage colleagues to undertake steps 4-6 as discussion activities with colleagues.