Assessment isn’t just about final outcomes. It’s the golden thread that runs through and underpins the university experience and how it’s handled affects so much more than results – it impacts on student satisfaction, retention, even mental health.
It’s becoming clear that reliance on summative assessment alone can hinder student progress and confidence; in turn affecting their perception of value.
A number of subsets of formative assessment already exist and each can have a role to play in providing the blended approach that may be more likely to motivate your students
Longitudinal assessment is specifically designed to not only assess knowledge, but to identify learning gaps and support knowledge retention. It involves shorter assessments of specific content, recurring tests over time to reinforce concepts, ongoing performance feedback, and follow-up assignments.
Programme focused assessment shifts the balance away from assessment at the module, unit or component level, and instead is designed to address key, full programme learning outcomes. It avoids assessment overload, and allows for greater flexibility; for example, assignments that run across modules, which allow easier identification of learning progress over time.
Self-assessment turns students from passive ‘recipients’ of judgement, to active participants in measuring their own knowledge. It requires an understanding by the students of theirrequired standards and learning outcomes, to help them identify and make decisions about their achievements and needs.
Authentic assessment aims to provide students with tasks that are more likely to be experienced in a ‘real world’ employment environment. Authentic assessment can take a variety of forms, from the simulation of discipline relevant tasks, to field research, or pitching ideas and research to industry representatives or student peers.
Peer assessment gives students responsibility to critique and provide feedback on each other’s work against set assessment criteria. It helps students develop lifelong skills in assessing and providing fe edback to others, as well as equipping them better to assess and improve their own work.
With the shift to greater online delivery becoming a more permanent feature, delivering an engaging, impactful and valuable experience to all your students – regardless of their physical location – is key to the success of every course.
