Stephen Downes

We covered assessment at an introductory level yesterday, and this post takes us more deeply into it as Julian Stodd offers "a pragmatic view at a complex subject." He describes an 'Assessment Intent document' that asks three questions: "[1] what are you trying to measure, [2] what is the context of measurement, and [3] why are you measuring it." He also describes three types of measurement: 'self reported'; 'produced' (assets of learning – group stories, co-created narratives etc – also some formal tests or assessments etc); and 'inferred' (which may include observation). I would say each of these has strengths, but also that they are also subject to weaknesses as well, including (for each of the three types respectively), self-delusion, misleading abstraction, and subjective interpretation.