Evaluation of an assessment change project, engaging academics and the role of SoTL.

This study follows on from a network-based assessment redesign project at a Canadian university, to investigate factors relating to academic engagement and sustained implementation. The project was designed with mini-grants, embedded support and a community of practice. Assessment facilitators worked in discipline clusters to achieve mutual goals for assessment reform targeted at authentic development and assessment of critical thinking and problem-solving. Interviews were conducted with nine of the project members one-year post-implementation to investigate the way that the project design engaged academics, sustained adoption and propagation of assessment strategies. Participants commented on how helpful the embedded support had been in building their assessment skills or knowledge. The mini-grants were used (in some cases) to engage with scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). All of those engaged in SoTL demonstrated intrinsic motivation for assessment change and had propagated assessment techniques or activities into other courses. In the few cases where motivation was purely extrinsic, there was no SoTL engagement or continuation of assessment activities. This study highlights the links between SoTL and the longer-term impact of the assessment redesign project. Suggestions are provided for institutions wishing to replicate outcomes from the project.