An online database of English assessment tasks for developing student teachers' assessment literacy

This paper reports a project that developed an online database of English assessment tasks for schools (assesslang.eduhk.hk). The project adopted a design-based approach. During the design phase, 92 student teachers designed language tests in groups; their designs were annotated with detailed task features before being moved to the open database. Two evaluative studies were conducted in 2018 (N = 48) and 2021 (N = 35) through a questionnaire; both studies found the participants showed a positive attitude toward the innovation but also uncovered several remaining issues through individual interviews (N = 10). Counter-intuitively, the 2021 cohort, whose learning experience had been compromised substantially due to the pandemic, was found to show more positive attitudes than the 2018 cohort. This finding along with others is discussed to inform researchers and educators elsewhere who are interested in harnessing the power of technology to develop student teachers' language assessment literacy in an even more challenging post-Covid era.