Co-designing authentic assessment

The entanglement of design senses in a network of assessment design decisions

Abstract

Assessment design often involves a collaborative effort among various stakeholders. However, numerous assessment frameworks still operate under the presumption that assessment design is primarily the responsibility of individual educators. Design methods for networked learning need to shift towards more collaborative approaches that bring together different perspectives and acknowledge the socio-material entanglement of human and non-human actants for a more inclusive educational future. In our work we advocate for co-design and place a strong emphasis on cultivating relationships and a decentralised decision-making process that challenges traditional power dynamics and hierarchies. Co-design represents both a mindset and a method distinguished by specific principles and procedures. In this paper we untangle the network of socio-material relationships in the co-design of authentic assessment for a large accounting capstone course in a business school. Students undertook this course during the last semester of their degree program. Rather than designing our assessment on an authentic real-world scenario, our assessment was a real-world task. We collaborated with an industry partner who needed to re-evaluate their business model to generate more revenue for their business. The students were tasked with developing a value-enhancing action plan for our partner’s business model. In this paper, we use Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to trace the network of human and non-human actants in the co-design of this real-world assessment task. We describe this network through the Assessment Design Decisions Framework, which provides six key considerations for decision making: purposes of assessment, contexts of assessment, learner outcomes, tasks, feedback processes, and interactions. The concept of design is subject to ongoing debate, which holds significant implications for the future of educational design. We therefore explore the intricacies of design through the five design senses: 1) design as domain, 2) as process, 3) as plan, 4) as the resulting product, and 5) as intentional creation of new possibilities. We demonstrate that when co-designing assessment in higher education, the interrelationships among these five senses remain fluid, perpetually shifting, and emergent within a complex network involving both human and non-human actants. The conceptualisation of the five senses as a network represents a methodological standpoint that enables us to portray the complex interconnections of tools, competencies, roles, and relationships within our educational co-design project. Reframing design activities as a network allows us to modify parts of the network, leading to more sustainable designs.