I have a dream … for innovative assessments

The portals of higher education have been opened to the masses and classrooms are now populated with students of varying talents, skill levels and attitudes. It is important for educators to cater to their varied student cohort especially in assessments. Deep learning is the goal of teaching and learning and meaningful assessments play a vital role in achieving this. Innovative assessments, both blended and traditional, are teamed with new assessment strategies to achieve this. Based on research on the use of innovative assessments spanning much over a decade I propose the DREAM model as a frame work for educators. Assignments should be D- differentiated, R - repeatable, E- engaging, A - authentic and M - measurable. In this paper each of these concepts are further developed to function as guidelines for educators who want to develop innovative assessment methods. in the pedagogical process and demand much effort and time from both educators and students improvements in assessment methods directly impact pedagogy. Over the past decades practitioners have done considerable research on assessments and identified several methods for improving their efficacy. This has led to the development of new features of assessments like formative and summative as well as new requirements like differentiated and sustainable assessments. A cumulative effect of all these developments has been keen experimentation by educators adding to the repertoire of traditional assessments through innovation.