1. Introduction to assessment Norman Jackson
University of Surrey
Learning and Teaching in HE programme
Introduction to assessment
Norman Jackson

2. My teaching model Didactic ‘directed model of learning’
Didactics - the art or science of teaching
Didactic ‘directed model of learning’
Autodidactic ‘self-directed model of learning’
My teaching model - Collaborodidactic

3. Our professional learning system
existing
codified
resources
knowledgeable
course participants
teacher as
facilitator
our collective tacit knowledge gained through experience

4. Assessment what do you associate with the word assessment?
2 mins jot down

5. Assessment what is it?
In the context of a course: assessment is the means by which teachers judge what students know and can do. It involves sampling a students knowledge, understanding and capabilities, making inferences about her responses and estimating the extent to which learning is demonstrated.
What criteria?
What is valued
in grades/marks?
About what?
achievements,
competency,
potential,
aptitudes,
attitudes,
motivations
What forms
of evidence?
How? How much?
Who does it?
self, peers,
tutors or
employers
What types of knowledge/skill?
What levels of understanding?

6. What do you perceive are the weaknesses
in the way we assess students’ learning in HE?
* Overload of students/staff
* Too many assignments with same deadline
* Insufficient time for completion of assignments
* Insufficient time for staff to mark
* Inadequate feedback to students
* Wide variation in assessment demands of different units
* Wide variations in marking and use of criteria
* Variations in marking within a module
* Fuzzy or non-existent criteria
* Undue precision and specificity of marking schemes
* Students do not know what is expected of them
* Students do not know what counts as good or bad
George Brown with Joanna Bull and Malcolm Pendlebury
Assessing student learning in higher education

7. Why do we do it? Some reasons for assessing students
* to provide feedback to students to improve their learning
* to motivate students
* to diagnose a student’s strengths and weaknesses
* to help students develop their capacity for self-assessment
* to provide a profile of what a student has learnt
* to pass or fail a student
* to grade or rank a student
* to show a student is capable of proceeding
* to provide information for future selection
* a licence to practice
* to provide feedback to lecturers on students’ progress
* to improve teaching
* to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a course

8. Typology of assessment functions
Diagnostic - assessment at the start or during a
course to provide a basis for a programme of
development usually at the start of a course.
Formative - in course assessment to provide
feedback on progress to aid further development
Summative - assessment about what has been
learnt normally at the end of a programme.

9. What has been your best/ worst personal experience of being assessed?
What are the main difficulties and problems you have encountered when assessing students?

10. Assessment
Any procedure used to estimate a
student’s learning for whatever purpose.

11. Some trends in assessment over last 20y
From To
end year exams end- and in-module assessment
written unseen exams to coursework and exams
entirely tutor led mixed tutor/student-led
implicit criteria explicit criteria
competition competition & collaboration
product assessment product & process assessment
objectives intended outcomes
subject know/under other types of know/und valued
A level entry diverse entry cannot assume
common background knowledge
What impact have these changes had
on teaching, learning and standards?
Trends in degree classifications

12. Generally speaking students’ learning is driven by
Proposition
Generally speaking students’ learning is driven by
assessment.Students put most effort into those
aspects of the course that are assessed.
What you assess and how you assess it will have a major
influence on what students learn and how they learn it
So before you assess you need to decide what you want
them to learn and why you want them to learn it.
What types of learning do you expect students
to gain and demonstrate in your modules?

13. What types of knowledge do we need in
order to be professional about assessment?
1 Knowledge of a range of assessment methods
that can be used to promote and evaluate
different types of learning in your contexts.
2 Knowledge of what works - derived from:
* your own experience and the experience
of others
* empirical research
3 Knowledge of the impact of assessment on
students’ learning and the impact of
environmental changes

14. What assessment methods have you used?
And why do you use these methods?
How did/do you learn about assessment?
Sources of information about assessment methods
Sue and Trevor Habeshaw & Graham Gibbs
Interesting ways to assess your students
Dai Hounsell, Mary McColloch and mary Scott
The ASSHE Inventory Changing Assessment Practices in Scottish
Higher Education on-line at
Many examples organised by subject/theme.

15. Example of useful shared experiential knowledge about assessment
BEng/MEng COURSE
* weekly lectures + problem sheets & classes + exam
* as classes got bigger teachers stopped marking problem sheets,
students stopped doing problems and ‘hid’ in classes.
* exam marks dropped from 55-45%
PROBLEM Teaching response to doing more
with less resulted in poor learning outcomes
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

16. what does this tell us about the way students learn?
WHAT THE COURSE TEAM DID
BOLD EXPERIMENT
* regulation - do 50 out of 80 problem sheets or don’t sit exam
* 6 ‘problem solving’ sessions run by administrators
* peer assessment of problem sheets using marking scheme
* no quality control!
* sheets handed back immediately with peer comments
* same lectures, same problems, same marking criteria,
same exam, only exam marks counted
RESULT
* average mark increased from 45% to 80%!
what does this tell us about
the way students learn?

17. Giving feedback to students to help them learn
* set target for return of marked work
* try to give feedback as close to the assessment as is
possible
* connect any grades to the commentary
* if there are many comments - summarise the key points
* balance positive and negative
* indicate what the student needs to do to improve
* make further suggestions for follow-up reading
* encourage students to evaluate themselves using the
same criteria
* relate feedback to the assessment criteria

18. Feedback to students on their performance
in formative assessment is an issue
why?
* they may not get any
* when they get it it might be too late to help them * it may not help them understand how they can improve
* it may not reflect the criteria by which they are judged
Some ways of providing written feedback
* Comments on assignments / exam scripts
* Model answers in handout/bulletin board
Feedback forms
* strengths / suggestions for improvement
* checklist against criteria
* checklist against structure/format of assignment
* self-assessment questions with answers
Use examples in Sue and Trevor Habeshaw & Graham Gibbs
Interesting ways to assess your students

19. What principles do you base your assessment on?
Examples of principles for assessment
1 The purposes and focus will be clear
2 It is integral to course design
3 What is being assessed, how judgements are made
and what is expected of students will be clear
4 Assessment tasks will be valid and manageable
5 Assessment workloads will be realistic
6 It will be free from bias and fair to all students
7 Marking and grading will be consistent
8 It will provide feedback to students to support learning
9 It will provide feedback to teachers to inform them
about the effectiveness of their teaching.
10 The assessment process will be quality assured and
open to independent peer scrutiny

20. Perspectives on assessment
RELIABILITY
Concerned with consistency / reproducability
of measurement/marking
Potential sources of inconsistency
* consistency of marking by individual teachers
* consistency of marking by different teachers
* test-retest reliability
* student inconsistency’s ‘good/bad days’
* changes in context e.g. increasing number
of students
Illustrate using research studies. How might we improve consistency of marking / grading?

21. Perspectives on assessment
VALIDITY - a form of truth seeking
is assessment fit for purpose
‘appropriateness of assessment tasks’
What assessment methods can be used
to assess what types of learning?
Paired or small group discussion
then build a collective map.

22. Place of assessment in a rational planning model for
course design and delivery
3 Intended
Learning
Outcomes
the learning
that is likely
to result from
these steps
2 Objectives
the steps to
achieve these goals
assessment in design
1 Aims
purposes/
goals for
learning
5 Judgements
on whether
and how well
ILOs have
been achieved
4 Teaching, learning
and assessment strategies to
promote learning

23. An outcomes approach to course design
EXPLICIT INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
expressed in terms of knowledge, understanding,
skills and perhaps values and behaviors.
Nature of understanding defined by verbs
intended
learning
learning
process
actual
learning
ASSESSMENT ALIGNED
TO LEARNING OUTCOMES
1) assessment methods that are valid to enable required learning to be demonstrated
2) criteria that enable learning to be evaluated and show students what is expected
THAT ENCOURAGES STUDENTS
TO BEHAVE IN WAYS THAT
WILL ENABLE THEM TO ACHIEVE
THE INTENDED OUTCOMES

24. Constructive alignment Biggs (1999) encourages teachers to think about
teaching system
what the teacher
does to promote
and evaluate learning
learning system
what the student
does to learn and
demonstrate learning

25. the key to describing learning is in the
use of verbs that relate to understanding
in a particular context.
Biggs SOLO taxonomy - four layers of verbs
1) identify, memorise, do simple routine procedures
2) list, describe, combine, perform skills in sequence
3) analyse, relate, apply, argue/justify, compare/
contrast
4) generalise, synthesise, theorise/ hypothesise, reflect
What verbs are you using in your assessment criteria?
Are they consistent with stated learning outcomes?

26. Marking/grading models Royce Sadler1
Grade awarded
according to
mark ranges
grade mark range HD D C P PC
F <40 2
Grading according to
qualitative descriptors
Grade
HD exceptional performance
complete and comprehensive
understanding, mastery of skills,….
D excellent performance, high
level of understanding of subject,
development of relevant skills
C good performance and level of
understanding
P satisfactory performance and
an adequate understanding of
basic subject matter
HD - pass with high distinction, D=pass with distinction, C=pass with credit P=pass

27. 3 4 Grading according Grading according to pre-determined
distributions
grade proportion
of students
HD %
D %
C %
P %
F % 4
Grading according
to objectives
grade main minor
objectives objectives
achieved achieved
HD all all
D all most
C most most
P most some
F few/none some
Use the engineering or other benchmark
statement to illuminate this model

28. Assessment models! Current undgrad. model QAA Benchmarking model
Normative rather than
criterion referenced.
Grading scale (100pt)
culturally aligned to
5 bands of honours system
Standards represent a
configuration of learning
characteristics in which
compensation and
trade-offs are a normal
occurrence (Sadler 1987)
We want to view learning
and performance holistically
QAA Benchmarking model
Criterion referenced
Two or three grading bands.
Relationship to grading scales
and honours classification
open to interpretation
Standards represent achievement
evidenced against specified
criteria. Outcomes must
be satisfied in full. Compensation
not permitted?
Requires two stage decision making
and judgements about satisfying all
minimum criteria

29. What marking frameworks / grading models do you use?
What is the marking practice/
culture in your discipline and how
does it affect the use of the
grading scale?
Illustrate different grading profiles
in different subjects

30. How does assessment in your module relate to
the programme as a whole? Connect to
programme specification and curriculum maps 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
etc
curriculum building blocks
Bench
marks
programme
outcomes
A B C D E F G H 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
etc
TPA
TPA P
TPA P
TPA
TPA
TPA
TPA
TPA P
TPA
TPA P
TPA
TPA
TPA
TPA PA
TPA PA
TPA
TPA
TPA
TPA P P
T=taught P= developed through practise A=assessed

31. Practical Assessment Design Learning Activity
Step 1 30mins gps of 3 using example provided
1 Design and justify an assessment strategy that
you feel would be valid
2 Develop examples of criteria that you would use to
evaluate the achievement of learning outcomes
3 Identify the principles that you have used in
this exercise
4 Identify any issues that the process raises
Produce a flip chart poster
Step 2
5 develop criteria for self evaluation of poster and
evaluate/grade your own
6 evaluate the other posters using the criteria and put
grade on yellow post-it
7 group discussion - what did we learn?

32. Useful resources for assessment
George Brown with Joanna Bull and Malcolm Pendlebury
Assessing student learning in higher education, Routledge.
Sue and Trevor Habeshaw & Graham Gibbs
Interesting ways to assess your students
Dai Hounsell, Mary McColloch and mary Scott
The ASSHE Inventory Changing Assessment Practices in Scottish
Higher Education on-line at
Many examples organised by subject/theme.
Learning and Teaching Support Network Subject Centre web sites
Learning and Teaching Support Network Generic Centre web site
(Project - Assessment)