PowerPoint slides on staff development event on assessment purposes and methods

1. Assessment & Marking
West Highland College UHI
3rd May 2013
Dr Rob Macpherson
Subject Network Leader, Business & Leisure

2. Assessment

3. • In China, Han Civil Service exams began taking place around 115 AD.
From at least 1370 these were in written form.
• Candidates were placed in isolation cells for 72 hours. They were
provided with food, water and bedding and lived in the cell for three
days, during which time they were required to attempt all the papers.
• In order to ensure that the marker was not biased, students did not
write their names on their scripts, but a code number.
• So that the examiners could not recognise a student's handwriting the
completed scripts were transcribed by a third party before being
submitted for marking.
• This style of exam was not finally abolished until 1909.

4. • In 1792, William Farish, Professor of Chemistry and Natural
Philosophy at the University of Cambridge developed the concept of
grading students' work quantitatively.
• With undergraduate numbers rising, the importance of proper
ranking of students was growing.
• Every examiner gave a numerical score to each response by every
student and the overall total mark puts the students in the final rank
order.
• Marking solved the problems of comparing a larger number of
students and limited unfair personal bias.

5. Why do we assess?

6. • To check students have acquired skills/competence
• To ascertain whether students have developed understanding
• To see whether students have developed new ideas/concepts
• To confirm students are participating in expected activities
• To affirm students are developing their identities as learners
• To compare one student against another (current, historic or future)
• To benchmark students against a norm or expectation
• To allow students to improve their learning and self awareness
• To highlight instructional deficits
• To identify potential future development needs
• To meet institutional/societal/political expectations
• To justify the module/course as valid to current and future students
• To demonstrate quality of teaching (and learning)
• To satisfy criteria for financial recompense/reward
• To transform individuals and institutions – students; tutors; society

7. What does effective
assessment do?

9. 1. Clarify what good performance is
2. Encourage study time & effort, promoting a depth of understanding
3. Deliver high-quality feedback to allow students to self-correct
4. Identify gap between actual and desired performance
5. Ensure a positive and developmental impact on learning
6. Encourage learning dialogue (peer/peer; tutor/student)
7. Facilitate self-assessment and reflection
8. Give choice of assessment topic or mode
9. Involve learners in defining assessment choices
10. Support the development of learning communities
11. Motivate and increase self-belief and self-esteem
12. Shape future teaching
REAP Principles, SFC/JISC Re-engineering Assessment Practices (2009)

10. Research indicates that improving learning through assessment depends
on five, deceptively simple, key factors:
• the active involvement of students in their own learning
• the need for students to be able to self-assess their performance and
understand how to improve
• the provision of effective feedback
• the recognition of the influence assessment and feedback has on the
motivation and self-esteem of students
• the adjusting of future teaching to take account of the results of
assessment
Black, P & Wiliam, D (1999) Assessment for Learning: Beyond the Black Box

12. What do we need to
think about when
marking assessments?

13. • What level is the assessment and what should I expect at that level?
www.scqf.org.uk www.qaa.ac.uk
• Is the assessment formative or summative?
• Is the assessment Pass/Fail or graded?
• What are the learning outcomes for the unit/module?
• Is the assessment addressing all, or some, of the learning outcomes?
• Is there an agreed marking/grading scheme?
• Is there an expectation of generic and/or contextual learning?
• Am I sole marking or one of a team marking this unit/module?
• Am I marking positively or negatively; or a mixture of the two?

14. What do we comment
on when marking
assessments?

15.  × Rank
Spelling/grammar/punctuation/tense use
Answering of the question set/coherence
Word choice/academic voice
Referencing/referencing style
Choice/range/quality of referenced texts
Theoretical integrity - thesis/antithesis
Factual errors/inaccuracies
Good ideas/practice/concepts
Bad ideas/practice/concepts
Style and structure (whole/substructure)
Development areas/further reading
Word count

16. How do we mark
assessments?

17. Concorde Examplar

18. Resources

19. Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA)
www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/25147.2550.html
Scotland’s Colleges (SC)
www.scotlandscolleges.ac.uk/Development-Projects/learning-teaching-and-assessment.html
Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)
www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Pages/quality-code-B6.aspx
www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Pages/Subject-benchmark-statement-Hospitality-
leisure-sport-tourism-2008.aspx
Joint Infrastructure Services Committee (JISC)
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/topics/assessment.aspx
Higher Education Academy (HEA)
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assessment