Assessing your students
What is achieved through assessment?
- Maintenance of standards: Student outcomes together with assessment give a description of what the institution values, rewards, and expects.
- Demonstration of accountability: to the University; employers; government; students; and community.
- Assessment tasks and feedback: Guide and encourage an effective approach to learning. Quantity of tasks and task type can encourage a deep or surface approach to learning. Constructive feedback allows for further learning.
- Motivates learning: Authentic and purposeful tasks tend to motivate learners.
- Provides opportunities for specific intervention: Errors provide an insight where the student is at with his/her understanding.
- Evaluates the learning experience.
- Provides evidence of learning: Means for learners to collect evidence of their learning in the form of portfolios and transcript of marks.
- Useful for employment: Especially if students are provided with a set of outcomes and indicators on how well they have met each of these outcomes.
What do students value most?
- They want to know what they are working towards, (e.g., outcomes/objectives; assessment criteria; clearly explained assessment tasks).
- They want to be provided with authentic tasks that are valued by other people (e.g. workplace); valued for the product; and valued for the intellectual challenge.
- They want some choice and flexibility of tasks and modes of assessment (e.g., peer, self, tutor, mentor, workplace, lecturer).
- They want explicit learning outcomes; criteria used for assessment; levels of achievement; and suggestions for improvement.
- They want to know what level of commitment they need to apply.
- They want reporting of level of achievement on intended learning outcomes.
From James, R., McInnis, C., and Devlin, M. (2002), Assessing Learning in Australian Universities, Centre for Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne. http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning
Elements of effective assessment
Fair
Each student needs to have an equal chance to demonstrate his/her learning. Assessment should not be a guessing game by the student to work out what the lecturer expects. Fair assessment means giving students clearly described assessment tasks and assessment criteria used to make judgements about a student’s assessment product.
Valid
The assessment tasks should be measuring the demonstration of the outcomes i.e. the assessment tasks needs to be aligned to the outcome(s).
Reliable
Clearly described assessment criteria and marker training/moderation mean that the same person will make the same judgement about the same performance on different occasions and different judges will make the same judgement.
Practical
- tasks should be efficient in their preparation
- appropriate in length
- cover an appropriate range of outcomes
- provide feedback on strengths and weaknesses
Sufficient
The assessment tasks need to be sufficient to make the judgement that the learning outcome(s) have been met.
Key considerations when planning assessment
La Trobe University Guidelines on Assessment
For detailed information see Academic Services Policies.
Student Centred Assessment
- Learning is about applying and modifying one's own understandings. It is something that the student does. We aren’t so much interested in how much information students can acquire but how well they can use it. Assessment tasks should allow students to apply and modify their understandings.
- Relationship between the lecturer and student is collaborative - you are learning with them
- Role of lecturer changes from judge, guide, critic, mentor.
- Students identify their own learning needs and can add these to the course objectives/outcomes
- Give students an opportunity to design some of their own assessment projects or reserach activities to meet the described outcomes.
Linking Assessment to Objectives/Outcomes
Through the assessment tasks students demonstrate how well they have met the objectives/outcomes.
Choosing appropriate assessment type
Devise more open-ended performance tasks to ensure that students are able to reason critically, solve complex problems, and to apply their knowledge in real-world contexts.
Students and teachers should look to assessment as a source of insight and help instead of an occasion for receiving rewards and punishments.
Lecturers should build into their assessment plan some interactive assessment, which allow lecturers to provide assistance as part of assessment. This gives lecturers a valuable insight into how understanding might be extended and also creates targeted occasions to teach and provides the means to scaffold next steps.
Assessment steps should be marked and made visible to students as an essential step in learning.
Assessment criteria
- Describe how and how well the student has to be able to achieve the assessment task to be awarded a particular grade.
- Guide the marker to make consistent judgements on student work.
- Clear and expressed in student-friendly terms not educational jargon.
- Are made explicit to the students before they undertake the assessment task.
- Discuss criteria with your students so that a shared understanding develops.
Consider using Assessment Grids/Rubics
Assessment grids list the criteria that will be used to judge the work and the standard that needs to be demonstrated to award that criteria an A, B, C, D, F.
- Gives students benchmarks for developing, judging and revising their work.
- Enhances students ability to self assess and self correct.
- Adds valuable feedback component to active learning.
- Lecturer can involve students in setting the standards by getting student input. Focuses students on how good work should be rather than completing an assignment. Giving student feedback about their work allows you to talk about the work at its current stage and how it differs from the target stage of development.
- If a student wants clarification about the result achieved then the conversation centres around the criteria, standards and quality rather than percentage marks.
- Students take ownership of their learning and judge their work using the rubric. They hand in the rubric with the assignment. This helps them to create a better final product.
Assessing Group work
- Planning group assessment is important
- Specify group membership
- Roles and responsibilities of group members
- Expectation of scheduling group meetings
- Assess both process and product (proportion)
- Develop assessment criteria and hand these to students before they commence the task
- Decide who will apply criteria peer/self/lecturer, combination
- Decide how marks will be distributed. Shared group mark, group average, individual, combination
Feedback
- Feedback affects the way we feel about our work. It is important that students are in an environment where they can expose their thinking without the risk of ridicule, loss of face and a low grade.
- Give them the good news first
- Show them/tell them how the work could be improved
- Round off your feedback with encouragement
- Define grades qualitatively so that it tells the student something meaningful
- Disputes should be over the nature of the learning and how it falls short and what they need to demonstrate to get a higher grade
- Needs to be timely so that students learn from one task before attempting the next
- Protect your own time through peer/self assessment, assessment grids, use attachment sheets with 10-20 comments or observations you’re most likely to make - leaves you more time for individual comments.
Learning Community
In real life there are a range of people who judge our performance and provide constructive feedback.
Model this at University if possible by
- allowing students to assess other students' work
- showing students quality work
- inviting guests to listen to presentations e.g:
- parents
- business community
- other students
- staff
References
- Assessment Policy, La Trobe University [PDF 46kb]
- Biggs, J., (1999), Teaching for Quality Learning at University, SRHE and Open University, Buckingham
- Forsyth, I., Jolliffe, A., Stevens, D., (1999), Planning a course, practical strategies for teachers, lecturers and trainers, Kogan Page Ltd, London
- Huba, M., Freed, J.(2000), Learner Centred Assessment on College Campuses, Allyn and Bacon, Needham Heights, MA
- Newble D and Cannon R (1998), A handbook for teachers in Universities and colleges, a guide to improving teaching methods, Kogan Page Ltd, London
- Ideas and resources for best practice in student assessment