Changing Educational Assessments in the Post-COVID-19 Era: From Assessment of Learning (AoL) to Assessment as Learning (AaL)

The upgrade educational information technology triggered by COVID-19 has shaped a new educational order and new educational forms. As a result, traditional educational measurement is now facing a systematic transformation, that is, from the Assessment of Learning (AoL) to Assessment for Learning (AfL), and finally to Assessment as Learning (AaL). By showing the initiative and the flexibility of large-scale online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper examines the evolution from AoL to AaL from four aspects: participants, test form, multivariate data for process-based measurement, and measurement models for multivariate data. We propose multidisciplinary corporations in the field, which integrate education, psychology, and information technology into the theories and methods of educational measurement. Further, we emphasize that the validity, ethics, and fairness of the measurement should also be considered the critical issues. Researchers and practitioners of educational measurement must persist in pursuing the substantive significance of measurement and provide unique experience and guidance for the theoretical and practical development of educational assessment in this great revolution.

Biochemical indicators of coronavirus disease 2019 exacerbation and the clinical implications.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has sparked a global pandemic, affecting more than 4 million people worldwide. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can cause acute lung injury (ALI) and even acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS); with a fatality of 7.0 %. Accumulating evidence suggested that the progression of COVID-19 is associated with lymphopenia and excessive inflammation, and a subset of severe cases might exhibit cytokine storm triggered by secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH). Furthermore, secondary bacterial infection may contribute to the exacerbation of COVID-19. We recommend using both IL-10 and IL-6 as the indicators of cytokine storm, and monitoring the elevation of procalcitonin (PCT) as an alert for initiating antibacterial agents. Understanding the dynamic progression of SARS-CoV-2 infection is crucial to determine an effective treatment strategy to reduce the rising mortality of this global pandemic.