AEFIS Software Differentiators

Implemented all the business logic of Weave — program assessment — through their forms engine.  Now in use at Texas A&M.  Not even using all the assessment yet.

Flowcharting in open standard BPML — using open source engine Camunda.  You drag and drop draw workflow, generates code.

Forms can be scheduled:

Key differentiator and privately:  the only assessment product that directly integrates within the LMS workflow at depth.  Others require login to the assessment platform, generation of a URL that becomes the linkage between them.  AEFIS is a feature for the instructional experience.  And once a course is cross-walked to a set of outcomes, the linkage remains.  Similarly, reporting can be “realtime” for assessment coordinators, drawing from whatever is linked at that moment.  But they can also say to faculty “please be sure to complete your outcomes links over the holiday, as we present to the deans in January” and know that the same reports will be improved.  

Multiple Accreditors/crosswalks:  the engineering schools have ABET accreditation but must also support work done for the institution itself for their regional accreditor like Middle States.  AeFIS supports doing both, simultaneously.

Authentic assessment is vital:  the ability to map outcomes to specific assignments in class is one way to avoid the “inauthentic, set up just for information gathering” type of assessment.  But when one wants to map to a course, there’s hidden complexity.  The use in the class may slightly differ from a generic use for assessment.  So they’ve carefully given faculty the ability to choose which assignments to link, but also to even adjust the rubric so that it’s assessed one way for class but differently for accreditors.

Faculty perspective:  because it’s embedded in Canvas AEFIS has been able to build a realtime report for faculty, so that they can see student progress against the assessment objectives as well as the traditional grade book view.

Assessment details—include the links to the actual submission in a way that are evergreen/always on as one needs for assessment being accessed by third party raters.  And also conceptually for comprehensive learner record/portfolio uses post-graduation or outside the institution.  

Performance in real time rather than just end of term.  Just in time is novel.