Ed/Tech must-reads 010425

Is authentic assessment leaving some students behind? from Times Higher Education

I am a fan of authentic assessment - there is much artificiality in the university context which may sometimes be logistically necessary (invigilated exams) but it seems a million miles removed from the ‘real world’ that we claim to be preparing students for. It was a pleasant surprise then to see this article from my TELedvisors Network co-convenor Sue Sharpe (Deakin) and Jennifer Z Sun (USyd) which brings even more nuance to these kinds of approaches. Sharpe and Sun note several ways that authentic assessments can still be exclusionary to people with disabilities or different cultural backgrounds and they suggest achievable ways to make them more inclusive.

The Qualifications Gap in Higher Education Leadership: Rethinking Hiring, Training, and Governance from Future Campus

We think a lot about preparing students for the future but the topic of how well qualified educators and leaders are in higher ed is a far more fraught one. Celia Whitchurch (2012) described the possession of a doctorate in higher education as “‘magic dust’ that could provide a turnkey in offering credibility, gaining entry to academic networks and developing their career” (p. 88). The unspoken assumption seems to be that having reached the top of the qualifications mountain, regardless of the topic, everything is known. Rachael Hains-Wesson (RMIT) questions this, in this direct piece in Future Campus, where she highlights that many senior leaders in HE enter their roles with little to know practical experience of leading billion dollar institutions. (I suspect that this is one of the reasons why the captains of industry that make up university councils have had so much influence on the culture of HE in recent years - they do have this experience, if not the cultural mindset). Hains-Wesson suggests that additional training might go a long way.

Summoning Software from Tachyon

Is it nepotism to link to content from two of my TELedvisors Network co-convenors? Or just confirmation of the fact that we have curated a bunch of people doing very interesting work. I’m standing by the latter. Antony Tibbs (ECU) has a great blog post here that lets me not be a complete grump about GenAI by exploring what is happening and possible in the world of “vibe coding” (in a nutshell - writing programs with no coding skills using GenAI). He takes us through some rather cool things that he has built in recent weeks using the latest version of Claude (Sonnet 3.7). These included interactive explainers of black holes, the solar system, a metronome, time tracking app, 90s video game, and more. He reflects on the 3 or 4 that worked and those that failed spectacularly. There is nonetheless clearly a lot going on that deserves further exploration.

Using Digital Technologies for Authentic Assessment Survey

This 15 min survey from the University of Otago asks HE educators to share their experiences of using technologies to support the authentic assessments (neatly bookending this newsletter).