Next Generation Online Assessments, Technical Democracy, and Responding to Digital Disruption

Cohort census testing is being recognized as problematic in many systems. This is often because of the way that it is linked to narrow notions of test-based accountability. In some systems, standardized tests are being augmented by next generation assessments that aim to provide better and timelier feedback, prompts, and resources for individual students. In this chapter, the Australian “Online Formative Assessment Initiative”(https://www. lpofai. edu. au) will be contextualized and subject to scrutiny, particularly with regard to how it might overcome the potential problem of the displacement of the teacher, made likely in automated systems. To that end, the chapter advocates for considering technical democracy as a productive way forward in respect of both displacement and data ownership.