Innovative Digital Assessments for the 2030 Learning Ecosystem

The financial crisis of 2008, the COVID-19 pandemic and imminent Fourth Industrial Revolution are shaping future learners' world views and what they will expect of higher education. SNHU Labs, Southern New Hampshire University’s research and development unit, helps the university take a long view by understanding the learner of tomorrow so that we can put things into place now to get ahead for the future. We help SNHU operationalize its vision by specifying hypotheses and addressing questions of feasibility. Our work to date has focused on innovative digital assessments for the 2030 learning ecosystem. Now is the time to take advantage of more natural opportunities to interact with technology by understanding how to design, develop, and test innovative digital assessments (often employing machine learning and psychometric models) using different modalities and technologies (not just text, but also audio, video, XR, and web-based digital games) at scale. Such multi-modal data gives us a better understanding about the learner's cognitive, behavioral, and affective processes. It also gives us insight into the context. This presentation will review several of our R&D projects with a focus on lessons learned, implementation considerations gleaned from feasibility testing, and implications for the future of higher education.