About this video

COVID-19 has caused chaos with respect to learner development and assessment. Yet those institutions that have embraced programmatic approaches to curriculum design have possibly been more resilient to the impacts of COVID. Programmatic assessment has allowed them to be better able to make progress decisions because they have been less subject to the 'shoe horning in' of last-minute simple solutions to complex problems. This resilience relates to the use of integrated longitudinal systems assessment that result in the production of 100s and even 1000s of data points per learner upon which to base the evidence for decisions.

These assessment systems are fundamental to the curriculum design and fully aligned to both the learning outcomes and the teaching, to ensure an assessment for learning philosophy supported by timely feedback, self-reflection and goal setting. This environment also requires the development of psychosocial skills, including self-efficacy; resilience; and, a growth mindset.

In programmatic approaches the closeness of the alignment between teaching and assessment results in a situation that transforms traditional formative and summative assessment approaches into a signle longitudinal data continuum against each learning outcome. The result of this alignment against learning outcomes is simple, and progression is based around evidence of meeting the learning outcomes through robust data, rather than being based around data from a very limited number of assessments where inadequate blueprints and internal compensation all too often impacts on the outcome validity. Overall, programmatic approaches give the promise of moving learner focus from passing tests to one of developmental growth, producing graduates that are demonstrably capable and employable.