HASTAC Scholars are at it again! Check it out and join the conversation.

http://www.hastac.org/scholars

Are current grading and assessment techniques keeping up with how students learn and what they need to know? How can digital media be used to develop new grading and assessment strategies?

The latest HASTAC Scholars Forum is up and running, and this time we're exploring the possibilities of new evaluation and assessment strategies in light of what digital media can now offer, the kinds of skills and knowledge students need, and the ever-changing landscape of education and academia. What's your strategy for grading today?

Grading 2.0: Evaluation in the Digital Age recognizes that, as the educational and cultural climate changes in response to new technologies for creating and sharing information, educators have begun to ask if the current framework for assessing student work, standardized testing, and grading is incompatible with the way these students should be learning and the skills they need to acquire to compete in the information age. Many would agree that its time to expand the current notion of assessment and create new metrics, rubrics, and methods of measurement in order to ensure that all elements of the learning process are keeping pace with the ever-evolving world in which we live. This new framework for assessment might build off of currently accepted strategies and pedagogy, but also take into account new ideas about what learners should know to be successful and confident in all of their endeavors.

How do we better align grading and assessment techniques so that they are more in line with how students learn today? The traditional 'teach to the test' evaluation paradigm continues to produce a classroom experience that focuses on specifically 'testable' results. That testing paradigm is also disconnected from all of the creative, production, remixing, and networking skills that students are developing through their everyday engagement with new media. Another issue is that the traditional assessment system tends to measure students individually and via multiple-choice and written-response questions. As teaching practices evolve to include more team-based projects that involve the use of smart tools to solve problems or communicate ideas, it will become increasingly difficult to assess students in the traditional ways. Furthermore, current widely-used tests are not designed to gauge how well students apply their knowledge to new situations.

In addition, how can digital media be used to develop new grading and assessment strategies? There is clearly a great amount of interest in developing new technologies, and new forms of pedagogy, to better reflect grading, peer interaction and learning in the digital age -- we look forward to hearing your thoughts!

We will be covering a wide range of topics, including:

Technology & Assessment
Assignments & Pedagogy
Can everything be graded?
Assessing the assessment strategies
Current strategies and experiments

Please help us think through these questions, experiments and strategies by logging on now: http://www.hastac.org/scholars. Please note that you must be a member of the HASTAC community to participate. Everyone is welcome to join - simply register here (http://www.hastac.org/user/register).