Well-being and assessment may seem to be an unexpected pairing. However, as the mental health crisis on Canadian campuses grows, supports for student well-being have become a standard of care in post- secondary education and assessment practices should not be exempt. By explicitly linking assessment to student well-being through a motivation framework, this program of research leverages a contemporary and pressing reason to change assessment practices in higher education. Motivation theory is well poised for this task with robust theories and decades of research showing that when students are intrinsically motivated, they experience less anxiety, are more creative, persist in the face of challenge, and reach ambitious goals. Unfortunately, students are overwhelmingly extrinsically motivated by assessment. While extrinsic motivators are highly effective for compliance, they come with costs including increased stress, anxiety, procrastination, and academic dishonesty – the exact sort of things that indicate poor well-being. In this program of research, we reorient assessment practices to prioritize student well-being by creating and testing the effectiveness of intrinsically motivating assessments.

Building on PI Daniels’ previous SSHRC-funded research, we propose a five-year four-phase program of research guided by self-determination theory to support the design of intrinsically motivating assessments. We are launching Phase II, a collaborative, iterative, and solutions- focused design-based research process in which we will partner research team members with instructors to reorient their existing assessments to prioritize student well-being. We will use a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of these reoriented intrinsically motivating assessments to promote well- being, sustain intrinsic motivation, and support learning and achievement. In Phase III, we will use grounded theory to develop a generalizable theory of intrinsically motivated assessment to guide assessment design. Finally, in Phase IV we will translate the results into a free-standing online professional development module, which we will evaluate and then make accessible to instructors across Canada. Each phase uses established research methods and appropriate analytical strategies while attending to the Tri-agency Research Management Policy and Guidelines for Effective Research Training.

Many instructors try to prioritize intrinsic motivation in their instruction, only to have it undone by extrinsically motivating assessment practices. Through this program of research, students will reap the benefits of intrinsic motivation right through summative assessment. To reach this goal, we prioritize multidirectional exchanges of expertise among researchers, instructors, teaching assistants, and students, and we are committed to open-access and data preservation. The research will result in original scholarly knowledge including conference presentations and peer-reviewed manuscripts. We designed our knowledge mobilization plan to reach instructors, students, and the public through appropriate means such as animated videos, infographics, applied articles, and media coverage. Knowledge mobilization activities occur in all phases of the project. The benefits of this research will continue beyond the tenure of the grant through a freely accessible online module to support instructors in designing intrinsically motivating assessment that prioritizes student well-being. If you're interested in highlighting this project, contact the PI at lia.daniels@ualberta.ca