Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Integrated Article

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

Education

Supervisor

Dr. Mi Song Kim

Abstract

Recent theories of education have shifted learning environments towards student-centred education. Also, the advancement of technology and the need for skilled individuals in different areas have led to the introduction of new media skills. Along with new pedagogies and content, these changes require new forms of assessment. However, assessment as the core of learning has not been modified as much as other educational aspects. Hence, much attention is required to develop assessment methods based on current educational requirements. To address this gap, we have implemented two data-driven systematic literature reviews to recognize the existing state of the field in the current literature. Chapter four of this thesis focus on a literature review of automatic assessment, named learning analytics. This chapter investigates the topics and challenges in developing new learning analytics tools. Chapter five studies all assessment types, including traditional and automatic forms, in computational thinking education. Computational thinking education, which refers to the teaching of problem-solving skills, is one of the new media skills introduced in the 21st century. The findings from these two literature reviews categorize the assessment methods and identify the key topics in the literature of learning analytics and computational thinking assessment. Studying the identified topics, their relations, and related studies, we pinpoint the challenges, requirements, and opportunities of using automatic assessment in education. The findings from these studies can be used as a guideline for future studies aiming to enhance assessment methods in education. Also, the literature review strategy in this thesis can be utilized by other researchers to develop systematic data-driven literature reviews in future studies.

Summary for Lay Audience

Evaluation of students’ learning is a key factor in education. Assessment of learning has various benefits in different educational levels. At the organizational level, assessing students’ learning provides an overview of the effectiveness of educational methods, tools, content, and equipment. Teachers utilize assessment to support students’ learning or evaluate their own teaching strategies at the school or class level. Also, assessment of learning allows students to learn by critically reviewing and reflecting on their own or their peers’ learning. Acknowledging the importance of assessment, some researchers call assessment the core of learning. However, assessment has not been well studied in the literature, and the findings from empirical studies indicate that more studies are required to achieve assessment methods suitable for the new pedagogical and curriculum requirements. This thesis studies the current literature of assessment in education. Targeting the new assessment methods suitable for the latest and changing education requirements, we focus on automatic assessment forms. Automated assessment scenarios use computer-based algorithms and methods to assess educational data. In a separate section, we also study different assessment methods in a recent educational field, computational thinking, to investigate the new requirement for assessing 21st-century skills. Based on the results, the thesis provides suggestions and possible future directions.

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