Authentic assessment: quantifying product and process

Despite much work the term "authentic assessment" lacks an agreed definition, leading to ambiguity and controversy over the utility of the term. Our work aims to increase transparency and consistency in evaluating authenticity of assessments using a standardised measure of authenticity based on previously published frameworks. We have developed a tool to measure authenticity in two dimensions, product and process, via a user-friendly survey whose results are displayed graphically.

The term Authentic Assessment was coined in the 1990s in direct distinction to traditional, standardised testing in the US school system (Wiggins, 1990). The nature of authenticity is somewhat vague (Ajjawi et al. 2020) and attempts to describe it have been qualitative and subjective. To address these ambiguities, the purpose of this study was to increase the transparency and consistency of the view of levels of authenticity in assessments by defining and quantifying key aspects of it. To achieve this aim, we developed a standardized measure of authenticity based previous studies (Gulikers, Bastiaens, & Kirschner, 2004; Ashford-Rowe et al., 2014).

This session will enable other educators to assess the authenticity of the assessments on their programmes, and to facilitate an open and informed dialogue about what authenticity means in different contexts.

This event is part of the Brunel Research Festival,which returns this May for a packed programme of online and in-person activities, celebrating how Brunel's research is changing society for the better. Free and open to all.

Explore the programme:brunel.ac.uk/brf