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Look at what has been achieved!

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Already we are in March and work has not slowed down for our Assess team. The Assess database now has full collections of illustrated worksheets, colourful flashcards with images and text, exams and rubrics to mark those exams.  A collection of images has been prepped and finalised by the partners.  All of this is now ready to be uploaded to the online exam tool which is currently being coded by the Spanish partner.  

Regardless of CoVid-19 restrictions, our meetings have taken place bi-weekly online.  We are hoping that restrictions will be lifted soon so that we can hold our Teaching, Training, Learning (TTL) event in Athens from the 30th of August to the 3rd of September 2021.

Regarding dissemination, our efforts have paid off with our Facebook page receiving 557 likes.  A three-minute explainer video has been produced with subtitles in all partner languages.  The video will be used to disseminate the project to all partner networks. You can watch the video here

ASSESS – BLOG / JANUARY 2021

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With 2021 finally here, we wanted to take a moment and share a few thoughts concerning the assessment of the productive skills (speaking and writing). This is a quite complex task.

There are so many traits and competences that can be assessed: fluency, accuracy, complexity of language, vocabulary richness and/or range, acquisition of specific vocabulary, language chunks or grammar structures, content/ideas and details provided, sequencing or organization of ideas… and, how to measure all these traits/competences? How wide should each trait be for L1 or L2 learners at different stages of proficiency? Should we prioritize competences in the assessment of learner proficiency or should they all be weighted in the same way? What type of tasks should be used to assess learners’ speaking and writing proficiency? How often should productive skills be assessed?

The answers to all these questions are essential to the development of any effective approach to the assessment of proficiency in the productive skills. However, with so many approaches that exist, teachers often feel confused and frustrated when it comes to evaluate English Foreign Language Learners and create effective and valid rating scales. 

Taking into account teachers’ difficulties and needs, the project ASSESS aims to define innovative methods and tools for the assessment of EFL learners. On the basis of approaches that already exist, the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), a range of information sources and data that was collected and analysed through questionnaires addressed to teachers, the project ASSESS will provide a handbook to suggest a usable scale construction model for application or adaptation in assessing speaking and writing exams, easily and in a reliable way. The objective is to contribute to the improvement of teachers’ skills in preparing reliable rating scales, allowing them to give a trait specific feedback according to different levels of achievement. Providing constructive feedback on speaking and writing (strengths and needs) is essential for helping students improve their skills.

In addition, in the web portal, speaking and writing exams will be complemented with an example of assessment scale ready to use or adapt.

We founded ASSESS project to help teachers find innovative tools for assessing English Foreign Language Learners. Our mission is being realized. We are eager to bring inspiration and innovation to foster good practices and facilitate the evaluation process.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN DISTANCE EDUCATION

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  The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut across the world.Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the class.As a result, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.Even before COVID-19, there was already high growth and adoption in education technology.Whether it is language apps, virtual tutoring or online learning software, there has been a significant surge in the usage of distance learning environments and e-evaluation techniques in education. It is believed that the integration of information technology in education will be further accelerated and online education will eventually become an integral component of school education. Even after coronavirus, traditional offline learning and e-learning will go hand by hand. There are, however, challenges to overcome.

 Important studies and projects are being carried out in order to make distance education effective and efficient.However, there are deficiencies related to e-EVALUATION, which is one of the sub-components of Distance Education. Teachers all around the world are having difficulty in keeping up with this new process.The unplanned and rapid move to online learning – with no training and little preparation – has resulted in a poor user experience in assessment.Teachers are sometimes having to use unfamiliar technologies while at the same time figuring out how to effectively instruct students who may not be very engaged in an online environment. Similarly, students and their families may be frustrated by the technology and the demands created by Distance Education.To cope with these challenges, formative assessment , an ongoing process used by teachers during learning and teaching to provide feedback of student learning to improve student understanding of intended learning outcomes and support them to become self-directed learners,is a recommended solution.

 Therefore,the aim of ASSESS project is to identify a sustainable online education and assessment platform in which English Language Teachers can find ready and quality content on the basis of curriculum and evaluate their students constantly with Formative Assessment strategies by interacting on the platform.

To get more information watch our video! 

Motivating and Engaging Students During the Pandemic

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Covid-19 pandemic has forced many students to home-school around the world. In many countries, schools are closed, extracurricular activities are canceled and big gatherings are not allowed. Both learning and interaction with peers have to take place online and that switch to virtual sphere has varying impacts on students. 

In order to shed a light on learners’ experience during the pandemic, Cambridge University Press has conducted a survey that reached out to English language learners from various countries around the world. According to the survey results, “Together with time management and communication, learners felt that keeping up their motivation under the new conditions was among their top 3 challenges”.  [Read More].

Motivation is an issue not only for the learners, but also for the teachers; motivating their students during the pandemic is one of the biggest challenges that education professionals experience at the moment.

The top three suggestions for motivating students in online learning, given by the language researcher and writer Dr. Heike Krüsemann, includes giving students feasible goals and opportunities to succeed;  increasing students’ “say” in the learning process; and encouraging peer-to-peer as well as learner-teacher communication [Read More]. This video, a talk made with Dr. Krüsemann, also gives tips on online teaching, as well as motivating and engaging students.