Dr Justin Rami Assignment: Task 1 Instructions ES204/222 - Assessment & Feedback

J.Rami Task 1 - Purpose The purpose of this activity is to apply the theory of assessment methods and curriculum alignment to a real life scenario. In your professional career you may be faced with a similar task or you may be asked to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of assessment activities set by others. By attempting to set assessment activities for a module you should: gain an awareness of the structured thinking that setting assessment activities requires. start to think about module objectives and how these can be met through an assessment activity that allows students to display evidence of their learning and knowledge.

J.Rami Task 1 - Activities The task is subdivided in three sub-tasks: 1.the description of the module for which you are designing the assessment activity (fill form in Annex 1) 2.the design of the activity. For this sub-task you provide a description of the activity (approx. 100 words), offer some guidance through written instructions (approx. 200 words) and set clearly specified assessment criteria (approx. 150 words) to be used by assessors and students as a reference. 3.The justification of your design choices on the basis of the theoretical knowledge you have acquired this far (600 words).

J.Rami Task 1 - Instructions This task requires you to think carefully about the structure of the module you are designing for, its learning outcomes and the type of competence that you wish your students to display by carrying out this activity. You need to ask yourself: “what are my students learning?” and “what they will be able to do as a result of studying for this module?” and in the case of professionally oriented courses “what level of performance they need to achieve in order to effectively function in their professional environment?”. The assessment activity you will design should allow your students to show evidence of their knowledge and ability to apply it to a specific environment.

J.Rami Task 1 -1 st sub-task the description of the module: Firstly you need to provide information on the course/module for which you are designing the activity. You will need to fill the template in Appendix 1 indicating the duration of the module the number of students taking the module and % contribution of the module to the overall qualification. Some brief indication of the module syllabus is necessary. You can choose a module you are already familiar with, create a new module or look up existing modules from courses descriptions available from various sources on the web. You are not assessed on the quality of your syllabus design but on your ability to link the module syllabus that you choose with an assessment activity. Nevertheless, you should bear in mind that, if the module design is under- specified, you will find it more difficult to design a suitable assessment activity. You will notice that the template in Annex 1 requires you to specify the level of the course. For detailed information on how to determine the level see the fan diagram available level descriptions available from the NFQ website

J.Rami Task 1 -1 st sub-task

J.Rami Task nd sub-task This section should be organised in three sub-sections: Activity description. The activity description you should give a brief outline of the structure and content of the activity. Instructions. With the activity instructions you are giving information to your students on how to approach the task. Assessment criteria. With the assessment criteria you are communicating and clear and transparent information about how the students’ work will be evaluated and what evidence they will need to produce in order to show their knowledge and skills.

J.Rami Task 1 – 3 rd sub-task In this section you are justifying your design choices. You need to: 1.relate your discussion to the core principles of validity, reliability, transparency and fairness. 2.show to what extent and how the module learning objectives (Learning Outcomes) and the assessment outcomes have been aligned. Also it would be advisable to attempt to foresee any potential problems in the administration of this assessment activity and in the students’ response to the task to ensure that the activity that you are proposing is pedagogically worthwhile and that you have carefully considered the all the necessary resources for its delivery and administration.

J.Rami Assessment criteria For the assessment activity design: A clearly specified link between module learning objectives and assessment criteria. The activity you design should give students the opportunity to display the knowledge and skills that they are supposed to have acquired and developed through studying for this module. You should be able to provide an answer to the question: “Is my assessment activity helping students to show understanding of the objectives of this module?” Clear activity instructions. Your instructions should avoid ambiguous wording and clearly specify what students are expected to do to meet the activity objectives. You should be able to answer the question: “Will my students know what they are expected to do?”. Clear assessment criteria Your goal should be helping students to do well. The specification of assessment criteria should maximize the students’ chances to do well. You should be able to answer the question: “Will my students know what does ‘doing well’ mean for this activity?”

Appendix 2 will help J.Rami