Formative assessment and feedback in post-digital higher education

Education, and by extension, how we approach assessment, is always affected by the context in which it is enacted. The book is framed by the idea that whilst assessment has been deeply affected by the rapid expansion of digital learning technologies as an everyday feature in higher education, such technologies are more than a backdrop to learning and more than mere networked containers of activity. This chapter takes a post-digital stance on assessment to outline some of the contemporary issues and challenges currently driving digital innovation around formative assessment. It acknowledges the role of technology in enhancing student experiences as it foregrounds new flexible and inclusive spaces for learning where the digital, material, and social are seen as intrinsically connected. Universities’ ability to navigate the digital domain in assessment has become of critical strategic and pedagogic importance. To this end, the chapter draws upon existing and emerging research in post-digital education to present a critical understanding of the close, complex, and changing relationship between digital learning technology and assessment and the prospective for new formative practices and processes to support truly sustainable student learning. The chapter provides a sketch of formative assessment and feedback practice from a post-digital perspective along with some of the compelling affordances for student learning development. This sketch foregrounds the collection of international disciplinary case studies that follow.