Developing Authentic Assessment and Enhancing Student Engagement through a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Exchange

My first step in establishing a new approach to assessment was to identify and consider the approaches to assessment of my international peers who teach health psychology. As one of the topics focused upon in the health psychology module that I teach is health-related behaviour (e.g., eating a healthy diet, being physically active), I wanted students to understand, not only the psychological theories and research findings relating to why we eat particular foods or have higher or lower levels of physical activity, but how we can apply this knowledge and understanding in everyday life to enhance physical health.

On reviewing Professor Jane Ogden’s (University of Surrey) health psychology module outline online, I reached out to her and she kindly shared with me the assessment brief she uses in her module. This assignment, which I adopted for my module, requires students to create a health information resource, targeted at a specific audience (e.g., the general public, healthy individuals, a patient group). The resource should contain practical information on how to enhance and improve physical health by changing an existing health behaviour or developing a new one (e.g., eating more fruit and vegetables or establishing and maintaining a regular exercise routine). In addition, students were asked to write a commentary that outlines the theories and research findings that informed the design of their resource. Key to successful completion of the assignment is a clear understanding of the psychological determinants of behaviour that are being targeted and how best to target them.

I adapted the original assessment brief shared with me by introducing student choice to the format in which they present their resource. The original assessment asks students to prepare a written leaflet. I introduced the option of creating a short video so as to align the assignment with principles of Universal Design for Learning. As all students may not have been familiar with how to create a video, I made resources available to them on how to record a video. Informed by the digital learning literature, and with tips from Professor Ogden on how best to present the assignment to students, I introduced learning activities in class and online in the weeks prior to the assignment submission date. These focused on identifying relevant empirical research findings, understanding the importance of an evidence-based approach, and engaging in critical analysis. The purpose of these low-stakes activities was to support students in developing and enhancing the skills they needed to design and create their own resource. For example, one task presented students with the opportunity to work together in small groups to review some existing health information resources, and challenged them to consider what theory or research findings might have informed the information presented, what works well in the resource, and how it might be improved upon.

To further enhance student engagement in the module and increase students’ intercultural competence, I developed this approach further by incorporating it into a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) exchange with my collaborator Professor Lisa Smith (Sacred Heart University, United States of America). This exchange focused on the sharing of cultural perspectives and brought together students studying health psychology at Mary Immaculate College and at Sacred Heart University. Students at both higher education institutions engaged with similar health psychology course material in their respective modules and collaborated on the learning activities described above before independently creating their own resource. The shared learning environment for our COIL exchange was presented via the learning management system ‘Moodle’, as seen below. This international collaboration provided the opportunity for students to consider international perspectives and encouraged them to think about how their learning applied at a global level.

The gradual introduction of the learning activities that support students in developing the skills they need to create their own resource requires planning. Allow sufficient time to present the learning activities in turn, over a number of weeks, as well as time for students to complete them before the assignment submission deadline.

With respect to the international exchange, identifying appropriate applications to support communication and collaboration is amongst the first steps of designing the exchange. Students will need to be supported in the use of applications that they are not familiar with (including Learning management systems that differ to what is used at their home institution). Allow a number of months to plan for the collaboration and complete appropriate training. Further information on how we implemented this COIL exchange is available in the journal article I published with my collaborator which can be accessed here. 

When embedding principles of Universal Design for Learning in this practice, you should consider what additional supports and resources students may need (e.g., information on how to record a video, if that’s not something they have done before).

I embarked on a professional development journey for which the goal was to introduce authentic assessment in my health psychology module to enhance my teaching practice and increase student engagement and active learning. Through engagement with colleagues (in my own institution and internationally), I developed a new approach to teaching and assessment in my module. The introduction of assessment relevant learning activities to scaffold student learning and the use of authentic assessment, as described above, have been effective in achieving my professional development goal. Engaging in an international teaching collaboration was not something that I had considered when I set out to design an authentic assessment.

When the invitation to collaborate on a COIL exchange presented, I used the opportunity to build further on my newly developed approach to teaching and assessment. It proved helpful to have this new approach to draw on in developing the COIL exchange and it has been satisfying to reflect on how this approach has developed and evolved over time. My COIL collaborator and I will rest the international collaboration for the current academic year while we take time to reflect further on what has worked well and what might be improved upon in future COIL exchanges. Developing the collaboration further by introducing additional learning activities and shared teaching via guest lectures on one another’s modules is something I plan to pursue. The teaching and assessment approach I’ve described here has been applied to one half of my health psychology module. I plan to consider ways of introducing authentic assessment in the other half of the module within the short term.

To find out more about engaging in a Collaborative Online International Learning Exchange please visit the SUNY COIL website here.