What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? (no cheating!)
According to the Braun Research Center, the first thing most people do when they wake up is check their phones. Many people reach for their phones to turn off their alarms and then proceed to check messages, emails, and social media updates. Social media captivates millions with its addictive nature, encouraging engagement and collaboration like never before. What if e-assessment platforms could be as captivating as social media? By integrating the UX/UI features that make social media so engaging, e-assessment platforms can boost collaboration between institutions and candidates.
The science behind engagement
It’s fascinating how the same features that keep us glued to social media are being used to make e-assessment platforms more engaging. By incorporating real-time feedback, personalised interactions, and user-friendly interfaces, these platforms are making learning more interactive and effective. The knowledge behind engagement shows that these strategies really help keep students and educators actively involved. Let’s see where the science goes:
Annotation and Feedback Features
Annotation and feedback features are game-changers for boosting engagement and learning outcomes. Think of these tools as the educational equivalent of personalised comments on social media.
Personalised Interaction
Just like how you can send a tailored message on social media, e-assessment platforms now let educators give personalised feedback on students’ responses, in video, audio, and text formats. This makes the feedback relevant and useful, helping students see exactly what they’re doing well and where they need to improve.
The Science: Research has shown that personalised feedback can significantly enhance learning outcomes. According to a study by Valerie Shute, specific and tailored feedback aids students in better understanding their errors and learning from them. Providing different communication options caters to diverse user preferences, enhancing engagement. Video and audio can convey emotions and nuances better than text, making interactions feel more personal and authentic. This multimodal approach keeps users engaged by allowing them to choose how they want to communicate, keeping the platform dynamic and versatile.
Real-Time Engagement
Social media thrives on instant interactions, and e-assessment platforms are no different. Educators and candidates can interact in real-time, allowing for immediate feedback and adjustments. This keeps the learning dynamic and engaging, much like a lively chat thread.
The Science: Instant feedback is crucial for maintaining engagement and motivation. A study by Hattie and Timperley in the Review of Educational Research found that immediate feedback leads to higher academic achievement. This concept is similar to the instant gratification users receive from real-time interactions on social media, which keeps them hooked and continuously engaged.
Collaboration and Sharing
Community and collaboration are huge on social media, and modern e-assessment platforms are following suit to improve education.
Community and Collaboration
On social media, people share posts and collaborate in groups. Similarly, e-assessment platforms let educators share assessments and work together with colleagues. This teamwork boosts the quality of assessments through shared insights and collective wisdom.
The Science: Collaborative learning has been shown to improve critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Cooperative learning strategies, where students work together to achieve shared goals, lead to higher achievement and increased retention of information.
Commenting and Discussions
Enhanced commenting features on e-assessment platforms are a lot like the comments section on a social media post. Educators can discuss changes, offer suggestions, and refine assessment items together in real-time, ensuring a more thorough and well-rounded evaluation process.
The Science: Social validation is a powerful motivator. When users receive comments, it activates the brain’s reward system, similar to receiving a compliment. Tagging, on the other hand, creates a sense of community and belonging by directly involving users in conversations and content. These elements encourage continuous interaction and participation, making the platform more engaging.
Instant Insights and Analytics
We all love instant feedback, whether it’s from a like on our latest post or quick insights on an e-assessment platform.
Instant Gratification
Social media gives us instant feedback through likes and comments, and e-assessment platforms provide immediate analytics on everything from item analytics to student performance. Educators can quickly spot trends and patterns, helping them make informed decisions about teaching strategies and where to focus their efforts.
The Science: The instant feedback loop triggers the release of dopamine, training our brains to seek more.
Navigation and Usability
A smooth user experience is key, and e-assessment tools are borrowing ideas from social media to make their platforms as user-friendly as possible.
User-Friendly Interface
E-assessment platforms now focus on user-friendly interfaces. With easy-to-navigate layouts, educators and students can spend more time on important tasks and less time figuring out the system.
The Science: No one understands the science behind great UX/UI than our very own design expert, Madina. “When students are comfortable and confident with the platform, they will likely perform better academically.”
Madina Suleymanova – UX/UI Designer, Cirrus Assessment
Quick Navigation and Shortcuts
E-assessment platforms have incorporated shortcuts, enabling users to quickly move between candidates, questions, and marking views. This saves time and enhances the overall user experience.
The Science: Efficient navigation reduces cognitive load and enhances user satisfaction. When users can navigate a platform easily, they can focus more on the content and less on figuring out how to use the system.
Engagement and Retention Features
Keeping users engaged and motivated is crucial, and e-assessment platforms use several strategies borrowed from social media to do just that.
Flexible Feedback Sharing
Just like controlling the visibility of your social media posts, e-assessment platforms let educators manage who sees the feedback. Whether making comments visible only to markers or sharing them with students, this flexibility ensures that feedback is appropriately tailored and delivered.
Highlighting and Interactive Elements
Highlighting text and linking annotations to specific criteria in e-assessment platforms is similar to tagging and highlighting features on social media. These interactive elements make feedback more engaging and easier to understand, promoting active learning and improvement.
Customisation and personalisation
Personalisation is key to meeting diverse needs, and e-assessment platforms offer extensive customisation options, inspired by social media’s personalised feeds and profiles.
Flexible marking options
Social media lets you personalise your experience, and e-assessment platforms do the same with marking options. Educators can choose from traditional points, rubrics, or narrative feedback, ensuring the grading process aligns with their teaching style and objectives. This flexibility enhances the relevance and precision of assessments.
The Science: Personalised assessment methods lead to higher student satisfaction and achievement. When assessments are tailored to fit specific teaching styles and objectives, they become more effective.
Tagging and organisation
Tagging is crucial for organising content on social media, and e-assessment platforms use a similar system. Tags like learning objectives, taxonomies, and topics enable efficient filtering and searching, making it easy to find and use assessment items. This organisation is essential for creating balanced and fair exams.
The Science: Effective tagging and organisation facilitate better content management and retrieval. Well-implemented tagging systems improve efficiency and user satisfaction.
Content Creation and AI Integration
AI is transforming both social media and e-assessment platforms, making content creation more efficient and innovative.
AI Item Generation
Just as AI tools help create content on social media, e-assessment platforms use AI for generating assessment items. Educators can create questions from scratch, generate distractors for multiple-choice questions, and enhance existing items with AI. This not only saves time but also ensures content aligns with specific curriculums and educational standards.
The Science: AI in education helps streamline content creation and improve the quality of assessment items. AI-generated content supports educators by reducing workload and enhancing the relevance and quality of assessment materials.
E-assessment platforms are taking cues from social media to create engaging, efficient, and user-friendly tools for educators and students. By incorporating features like personalised interaction, real-time engagement, community collaboration, instant insights, user-friendly interfaces, transparency, flexible feedback sharing, customisation, and AI integration, these platforms are revolutionising the way we approach teaching and testing. These parallels highlight the potential for e-assessment tools to make education more interactive, efficient, and effective for everyone involved.
