Online assessments have been riddled with challenges, but they have demonstrated one thing: the old system of packed halls in the RDS where students spew out rote-learned information is well and truly broken.
The online mode of examination is by no means perfect – and in some instances in-person exams are essential – but for a lot of students, take-home exams have proven successful. Furthermore, online exams have allowed College to truly diversify assessment, and handed it a golden opportunity to bring university assessment into the 21st century.
When the Trinity Education Project (TEP) – now known as Trinity Education – was introduced in 2018, it was not long before reports emerged that students were suffering from “massive stress”. The cruel irony of its unpopularity was the fact that the project was, ultimately, meant to be a good thing for students. TEP was exciting and envisioned new modes of assessment, new structures of teaching and a shake-up of some 400 years’ worth of tradition – which sounds remarkably similar to the experience of education we have had in the past year.
While the introduction of TEP signalled a willingness on the part of College to be increasingly bold and imaginative in its approach to education, it has thus far fallen short of the vision.
But this year College has at last been able to actually re-imagine education in a meaningful and realistic way – it must not lose this momentum. It must seize the opportunity to show that teaching and learning can successfully take different and unconventional forms.
The pandemic, and the shift over to new modes of assessment it has caused, has demonstrated the fact that there are other ways of learning and examining that are not outside the realms of possibility. All they require is a bit of imagination and, crucially, a willingness to lean into it.
Failure to grasp this new opportunity would be an utter waste. If next summer thousands of students are lugging their bags into a cloakroom in the RDS for another round of in-person exams, it will be a crying shame indeed.
