1. Assessment and Feedback Peer and Self Assessment
Fang Lou, Mark Russell
and Helen Barefoot
The Learning and Teaching Institute

2. What does good assessment look like?

3. GOOD assessment Stimulates learning
ALWAYS provides high quality feedback
Efficient and timely
Related to learning objectives
Develop self-assessment abilities
Provides staff-student contact
Monitors student progress
Appropriate methods used
Accurate and reproducible

4. Assessment Experience Questionnaire
Student learning is best supported when the following conditions are met:
Assessed tasks capture sufficient student time and effort
These tasks distribute student effort evenly across topics & weeks
These tasks engage students in productive learning activity
Assessment communicates clear and high expectations to students
Sufficient feedback is provided, often enough & in enough detail
The feedback is provided quickly enough to be useful to students
Feedback focuses on learning rather than on marks or students
Feedback is linked to the purpose of the assignment and to criteria
Feedback is understandable to students, given their sophistication
Feedback is received by students and attended to
Feedback is acted upon by students to improve their work or their learning
assessment conditions which best support learning.
Course experience questionnaire – Paul Ramsden – Australia
Discusses reduction in formative assessments – “Open University students may receive 50 times as much feedback on assignments over the course of an entire degree compared to students at conventional universities. OU Students can cope without much, or even, any facte-2-face teaching, but they cannot cope without regular feedback on assignments
(Gibbs & Simpson, 2004)

5. Good Feedback Practice
Good assessment and feedback practice should: 1 Help to clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards) 2 Encourage 'time and effort' on challenging learning tasks 3 Deliver high-quality feedback information that helps learners to self-correct 4 Provide opportunities to act on feedback (to close any gap between current and desired performance) 5 Ensure that summative assessment has a positive impact on learning 6 Encourage interaction and dialogue around learning (peer and teacher-student) 7 Facilitate the development of self-assessment and reflection in learning 8 Give choice in the topic, method, criteria, weighting or timing of assessments 9 Involve students in decision-making about assessment policy and practice 10 Support the development of learning groups and learning communities 11 Encourage positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem 12 Provide information to teachers that can be used to help shape their teaching
Meta-analysis of 87 studies (Hattie 1987) – what makes a difference to student achievement? –most powerful single influence is feedback
Study of student and staff perceptions of feedback differ (Maclellen 2001) – staff think they provide useful information which stimulates discussion – students think that it is sometimes useful/helpful yet rarely (2%) think it stimulates discussion
What students do with feedback can be depressing – feedback is often not read at all or understood.
In absence of mark – students read feedback much more carefully.
Nicol (2009)

6. NUS Principles of effective assessment
1. Should be for learning, not simply of learning
2. Should be reliable, valid, fair and consistent
3. Should incorporate effective and constructive feedback
4. Should be innovative and have the capacity to inspire and motivate such as
with the use of technology
5. Should measure understanding and application, rather than technique and
memory
6. Should be conducted throughout the course, not simply positioned as a final
event
7. Should develop key skills such as peer and reflective assessment
8. Should be central to staff development and teaching strategies, and frequently
reviewed
9. Should be of a manageable amount for both students and tutors
10. Should encourage dialogue between students and their tutors, and students
and their peers
(NUS’ Principles of effective assessment)

7. Experiences of self/peer assessment

8. Coping strategies for large numbers of reports/essays marking (1)
Work in groups; joint rather than individual report.
Run parallel activities on some weeks
Abolish half the practicals/seminars and provide time for self-directed learning
Mark only some of the exercises rather than all reports
Get your post-graduate students to do the marking for you
Specify very tight format; reporting data recorded, processing, final result

9. Coping strategies for large numbers of reports/essays marking (2)
Use objective marking (e.g. MCQ) to test understanding of the practical/calculations.
Pre-prepared comment sheets for feedback or assembled feedback via StudyNet
Use peer-or self-marking of the write-ups
Separate the learning objectives of different teaching activities and teach each explicitly.
Peer marking copes with problem and has bonuses

10. Why do peer assessment? all get all the information
provides full explanation
requires better understanding
develops critical evaluation
see others’ mistakes and standards
exposes bias/fairness/integrity issues
saves staff time and effort
IMPROVES STUDENT LEARNING

11. Example of improvement in student learning at Leeds

12. Self- & Peer - assessment
What is it?
Why do we use it?
Student – centered
Clear transparent criteria
Encourage deep learning
Quicker feedback
Learn from others

13. Example (peer assessment)
Bioscience level 1, 200 students
Practical on exercise physiology, proforma
A workshop to brief students
Full lab report, submitted on StudyNet & hard copy
2 hour session for peer assessment; marking criteria; comments;
WATS for reflection and feedback (5%)

14. Key points of the workshop
Using EVS to discuss with students about what, why and how to do peer assessment
Detailed guidance of how to write a lab report
General marking criteria of a full lab report is given
Total marks and sign
Reports collected and marking sheet to lecturer
introduction and initiation
•keep silence during marking!
•cheating?
•scheduling; all same prac; time between prac and marking session; standard answer /data

15. Key points of the marking session
Preparation and organisation
2 hours duration with prompt start
Clear and detailed marking scheme – take them through timely; print-out
Prompt attendance to queries – consistent answers
OMR (optical marker Reader) marking sheet for scan
WATS (weekly assessment tutorial sheet) system for reflection and feedback
introduction and initiation
•keep silence during marking!
•cheating?
•scheduling; all same prac; time between prac and marking session; standard answer /data

16. What do the students think?

17. What do the students think?

18. What do the students think?

19. “In what ways did you benefit from the peer assessment activity?”
marking other people
work can be useful to
spot what you have
done wrong in your
own report so that
was a good benefit
nothing much really
showed the
standard that
others were
working at
I don't feel that I benefited from the peer assessment activity, however, the detailed marking scheme did help to show what the lecturers are looking for in future reports.
I felt that the marking
scheme and even reading
other peoples work made
me reflect upon what I was
good at and what I could
work on/add to in
my report and future
reports.
i had the chance to
look at someone
else’s style of writing
and problem solving,
which i may
incorporate into my
own work.
Good indication of what our
lecturers would be looking for
as well perhaps of how our
peers may view our written
work. Additionally from this
exercise, i can gauge how
effective my written
communication skills are
in the scientific field norms.
allowed me to
understand the
lecturers
impartial role in
the marking
process

20. it's a fantastic experience
“What other comments do you have regarding the peer assessment process?”
Time could have
been used as a
lecture to
improve
our understanding of
human
physiology
i think the assesment
wasnt very fair as
some markers can be
really generous and
others will not be.
It was a
very good
eye
opener
the marking criteria
was a great help and
provided a guideline
for future lab
reports.
I feel really unwell for my lab
report marks. the marker didn't
even count the total marks for
me, and the comment he/she
wrote was unreasonable. and
he/she didn't even
marks my PTS skills!!
It wasn't as bad
as I thought, but
had trouble
keeping up.
It is quite a bit risky
marking someone
else's work but it was
quite beneficial in
understanding the
criteria used in
marking our
laboratory reports.
it's a
fantastic
experience

21. What is prompt ?

22. Consider if one of your assignments could be peer or self assessed

23. ESCAPE Themes
Good Assessment for Learning… …Engages students with assessment criteria …Focuses on student development …Ensures feedback leads to improvement …Stimulates dialogue …Considers staff and student effort

24. Remember Assessment creates learning opportunities
Assessment can enhance teaching
Good assessment is motivating, aligned and feedback rich
Guidance is out there
ESCAPE project page:
ESCAPE blog; Blogging from the mud movers: