Why is transforming assessment important?
“Transforming assessment can have a positive impact upon student learning and student satisfaction as well as promoting greater confidence in academic standards.”
Assessments are essential to measuring how much students learn. It should be designed in a way to promote student learning.
Transforming assessments is a huge process > it requires coordination from a range of different areas such the curriculum, ways of teaching, what is being assessed, how is it being assessed.
“A cycle of review, plan and action.”
- Increase student satisfaction
- Greater confidence in academic standards
- Improved potential for student learning
Reflection: My ARP has made me realise that in order to have an effective assessment process, the work starts well before. It is not something you consider at the end of your planning but something that is in-built into the unit, curriculum and ways of teaching. It impacts “other fundamental areas of student success such as retention, attainment, inclusivity, flexibility, partnership, and outcomes” ((Pitt & Quinlan, 2022). You cannot have a standardised method that would work for every project and student but you can do your best to minimise the barriers and difficulties that students and staff experience within this process.
The main areas to focus on in transforming assessment:
- Innovative assessments – challenging and meaningful that promote student learning
- Feedback practices – dialogue between staff and students, and between students. Being able to use feedback as an aid to learning
- Self and peer assessment – can be class based activity, group work or online. This helps them develop reflective and evaluative skills.
GOAL:
The assessment process who’ll be integrated and aligned into the course
Staff and students should have a clear idea of what is expected of them and what the assessment process is.
The course design increases the student’s understanding of the assessment process and recognise the standards they need to reach.
Issue: the framework champions the importance of peer and self assessment however my survey responses from the students showed the opposite, majority of them stating that they found it the least helpful methodology.
Why did they find peer and self-assessment ineffective?
Method of peer assessment?
Anonymous written feedback with the learning outcomes written
The importance of see-ing others students work and ways of approaching it
Seeing different processes, learning about new topics and research,
- Things to be mindful of:
- Some students can be shy about their work – may feel embarrassed and demotivated if they begin to compare their work with others
- It is quite a hard skill to give feedback – how can that be encouraged on a smaller scale basis – scaffolding
Bibliography:
Advance HE (no date) “Essential frameworks for enhancing students success – transforming assessment in higher education” (no date). Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2020-05/Transforming%20Assessment%20in%20Higher%20Education%20Framework.pdf (Accessed: 12/12/2022)