Assessment is a key element of any learning program; it is through assessment that we know our students, and know what they have learnt; it is the quality control mechanism for our graduates; it is an important feedback loop on the effectiveness of our teaching. Assessment is central to learning design, and yet it is often the thing we think of last. This presentation highlights some of the key ideas driving assessment practice, and raise questions regarding assessment strategy and design such as: What makes good assessment? What are some principles of a sound assessment strategy, and why Some new ways forward – what will you do differently?

1. Ann Wilson
Senior Academic Developer
Learning and Teaching at Navitas

2. What will we be talking about?
 What makes good assessment?
 What are some principles of a sound assessment
strategy, and why?
 Some new ways forward – what will you do differently?

3. Why assess?
 What is the purpose of assessment?

6. Two types or timing of assessment
 Formative assessment When?- during
the results of which are used for feedback.
Students and teachers both need to know how
learning is proceeding
 Summative assessment When? - at the end
the results of which are used to grade students at the
end of a course, or to accredit at the end of a program

7. Assessment is the curriculum
‘Students can escape bad teaching but they cannot escape
bad assessment’
David Boud
‘They learn what they think they will be assessed on’
Paul Ramsden

8. Students’ focus on assessment

10. How assessment supports learning
1. Sufficient assessed tasks are provided for students to capture sufficient
study time (time on task)
2. These tasks are engaged with by students, orienting them to allocate
appropriate amounts of time and effort to the most important aspects of
the course.
3. Tackling the assessed task engages students in productive learning
activity of an appropriate kind
Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Issue 1, 2004 Conditions Under Which
Assessment Supports Students’ Learning GRAHAM GIBBS & CLAIRE SIMPSON

11. What are some principles of a
sound assessment strategy?

12. Assessment Manifesto
Assessment…
1. should be based on an understanding of how students learn
2. should accommodate individual differences in students
3. purposes and expectations need to be clearly explained
4. needs to be valid (measure outcomes)
5. needs to be reliable and consistent
6. should allow students to receive feedback
7. should provide staff and students with opportunities to reflect
8. should be an integral component of course design
9. should be of an appropriate amount
10. criteria need to be understandable, explicit and public
11. should be sustainable
Brown, Race and Smith, 2010; Boud and Falchikov, 2007

13. 1. should be based on an understanding of how students learn
A Model of Learning
Be introduced to it
Get to know it
Try it out
Get feedback
Reflect and adjust
Use it!

14. 2. should accommodate individual
differences in students

15. 3. purposes and expectations need to be clearly
explained

16. 4. needs to be valid (measure outcomes)

17. Biggs, 2012
Teaching/
Learning Activities
Designed to elicit acts
indicated by the
verbs.
Activities may be:
teacher-controlled
peer-controlled
self-controlled
as best suits the
context.
CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES
expressed as verbs students have to enact
A
The very best understanding that could be
reasonably expected:
might contain verbs such as hypothesise,
apply to ‘far’, domains
B
Highly satisfactory understanding:
Might contain verbs such as explain, solve, analyse,
compare
C
Quite Satisfactory learning, with
understanding at a declarative level:
verbs such as elaborate, classify,
cover topics a to n
D
Understanding at a level that would warrant
a pass:
low-level verbs, also inadequate but salvageable
higher-level attempts
Assessment Tasks
Evaluate how well the
target acts indicated
by the verbs are
deployed in the
context.
The highest level
response to be clearly
manifested becomes
the final grade A, B,
C, etc.)
Learning Outcomes
Learning Activities

18. To get alignment in your teaching…
 Describe intended outcomes of learning in terms
of what the students are supposed to be able to
perform after the teaching, incorporating the
standards or criteria that students are to attain.
 Engage students in learning activities that are
likely to bring about the intended outcomes.
 Judge if and how well students’ performances meet
the criteria.

19. Blooms taxonomy

20. SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs 2010)
Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes
Misses point
Prestructural Unistructural Multistructural Relational Extended Abstract
Quantitative phase Qualitative phase
Identify
Do simple procedure
Enumerate
Describe, List
Combine, Do algorithm
Compare/Contrast
Explain, Analyse,
Relate, Apply
Theorise, Generalise,
Hypothesise, Reflect

22. 5. needs to be reliable and consistent

24. 6. should allow students to
receive feedback

25. 7. should provide staff and
students with opportunities to
reflect

26. 8. should be an integral component of
course design
9. should be of an appropriate amount
10. criteria need to be understandable,
explicit and public

28. 11. Should be sustainable
Rethinking models of feedback for learning: the challenge of
Design by David Boud* and Elizabeth Molloy
Student feedback is a contentious and confusing issue throughout higher
education institutions. This paper develops and analyses two models of feedback:
the first is based on the origins of the term in the disciplines of engineering and
biology. It positions teachers as the drivers of feedback. The second draws on
ideas of sustainable assessment. This positions learners as having a key role in
driving learning, and thus generating and soliciting their own feedback. It
suggests that the second model equips students beyond the immediate task and
does not lead to false expectations that courses cannot deliver. It identifies the
importance of curriculum design in creating opportunities for students to
develop the capabilities to operate as judges of their own learning.

29. Assessment Manifesto
Assessment…
1. should be based on an understanding of how students learn
2. should accommodate individual differences in students
3. purposes and expectations need to be clearly explained
4. needs to be valid (measure outcomes)
5. needs to be reliable and consistent
6. should allow students to receive feedback
7. should provide staff and students with opportunities to reflect
8. should be an integral component of course design
9. should be of an appropriate amount
10. criteria need to be understandable, explicit and public
11. should be sustainable
Brown, Race and Smith, 1996; Boud and Falchikov, 2007

30. Some new ways forward –
What are you thinking
about?
What will you do
differently?