Assessment for Learning City University Hong Kong

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Assessment for Learning City University Hong
Kong

• Sally Brown
• Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Assessment, Learning and
  Teaching
• Leeds Metropolitan University

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Assessment methods and requirements probably
have a greater influence on how and what students
learn than any other single factor. This
influence may well be of greater importance than
the impact of teaching materials (Boud 1988)
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Students can avoid bad teachingthey cant avoid
bad assessment. (Boud 1994)
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What are universities for?

• The revolution in content delivery means that the
  role of student support and assessment/
  accreditation are becoming more crucial
• Perhaps all institutions will ultimately change
  their focus towards outcomes-based teaching and
  learning
• Our attitudes and approaches to assessment,
  learning and teaching will need to change
  radically

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How can we integrate assessment with learning?

• It needs to be built-in rather than bolt-on
• Assignments need to be authentic, that is,
  assessing learning that is identified in the
  learning outcomes
• Learning outcomes need to be designed to be
  specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and
  time-constrained (SMART)
• The assessment strategy should make sure that
  assignments are fit-for-purpose.
• Assessment should stimulate learning (not prevent
  it!)

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A fit-for-purpose model of assessment the key
questions

• Why are we assessing?
• What is it we are actually assessing?
• How are we assessing?
• Who is best placed to assess?
• When should we assess?

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Why are we assessing? Choosing the reasons for
assessment these may include

• Enabling students to get the measure of their
  achievement
• Helping them consolidate their learning
• Providing feedback so they can improve and remedy
  deficiencies
• motivating students to engage in the learning
• providing them with opportunities to relate
  theory and practice

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more purposes...

• Helping students make sensible choices about
  option alternatives and directions for further
  study
• demonstrating student employability
• providing assurance of fitness to practice
• giving feedback to teachers on effectiveness
• providing statistics for internal and external
  agencies

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Choosing what we assess

• product or process?
• theory or practice?
• subject knowledge or application?
• what weve always assessed?
• what its easy to assess?

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Approaches

• Self assessment
• peer assessment
• group-based assessment
• negotiated learning programmes
• computer-based assessment
• work-based assessment

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Being imaginative by choosing diverse assessment
methods?

• essays, unseen written exams, reports
• portfolios, projects, vivas, assessed seminars,
  poster presentations, annotated bibliographies,
  blogs, diaries, reflective journals, critical
  incident accounts, artefacts, productions, case
  studies, field studies, exhibitions, critiques,
  theses.

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Alternatives to traditional exams

• Open-book exams Take-away papers
• Case studies Simulations
• Objective Structured Clinical Examinations
  (OSCEs)
• Short answer questions
• In-tray exercises Live assignments
• Multiple choice Tests

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Choosing diverse assessment methods is valuable
because

• all assessment methods disadvantage some students
• we can access thereby a wider range of students
  abilities and skills
• assessment can then become an integral purpose of
  learning
• we can learn from the experiences of others

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Choosing who is best placed to assess

• tutor assessment
• self-assessment
• peer assessment, (either inter or intra peer)
• employers,practice tutors and line managers
• client assessment

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When should assessment take place?

• No sudden death
• end point or incrementally?
• when students have finished learning or when
  there is still time for improvement?
• when it is convenient to our systems?
• when it is manageable for students? (avoiding
  week 7 blues)

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To integrate assessment we should realign it by

• Exploring ways in which assessment can be made
  integral to learning.
• Constructively aligning (Biggs 2003) assignments
  with planned learning outcomes and the curriculum
  taught
• Providing realistic tasks students are likely to
  put more energy into assignments they see as
  authentic and worth bothering with.

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Formative and summative feedback 2 ends of a
continuum

• Formative assessment is primarily concerned with
  feedback aimed at prompting improvement, is often
  continuous and usually involves words.
• Summative assessment is concerned with making
  evaluative judgments, is often end point and
  involves numbers.

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How can we make students take feedback more
seriously? We can

• Spend time and energy helping students to
  understand the importance of feedback and the
  value of spending some time after receiving work
  back to learn from the experience. Most students
  dont do this at the moment, concentrating
  principally on the mark.
• Some withhold the mark until after the student
  has received and responded to feedback
• Some provide assessed opportunities for
  reflection on previously marked work.

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We can make feedback timely

• Aim to get feedback on work back to students very
  quickly, while they still care and while there is
  till time for them to do something with it.
• The longer students have to wait to get work
  back, especially if they have moved into another
  semester by the time they receive their returned
  scripts, the less likely it is that they will do
  something constructive with lecturers
  hard-written comments.

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We can concentrate formative feedback where it
can do most good

• Dont give detailed written feedback to students
  on work that is handed back at the end of the
  semester if that area of study is no longer being
  followed by the student just give a mark or
  grade
• Give more incremental feedback throughout the
  semester (and if university systems dont allow
  this, change the systems!)
• Ensure that students at the top end of the
  ability range dont feel short changed by minimal
  feedback.

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Use formative assessment to promote independence

• Investigate how learning can be advanced in small
  steps using a scaffolding approach
• Provide lots of support in the early stages when
  students dont understand the rules of the game
  and may lack confidence
• This can then be progressively removed as
  students become more confident in their own
  abilities.

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Modes of feedback pros and cons

• Written feedback time consuming, provides a
  permanent record, can be carefully worded, can be
  used in evidence against you, can be compared
  with other students comments and
• Oral feedback immediate, ephemeral, can be
  time-efficient, may be hasty or ill-considered,
  can be wrongly remembered, tone of voice and body
  language can add emphasis or soften the blow and
• Taped feedback can feel artificial, equipment
  can let you down, provides a record, must be
  listened to in real time, time-efficient, can be
  shared by several students, can be quality
  audited and
• Emailed feedback practically instantaneous,
  students get feedback when they still care, needs
  marker to have a big computer desk, tone can be
  an issue and..

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My top guidelines for effective feedback

• Dont spend ages on writing idiosyncratic
  feedback to students who wont read it
• Be aware of the impact of your own fatigue and
  frustration on the type and level of feedback
  that late-marked students receive.
• Always ask yourself Is there an easier way I can
  be doing this?
• Just because its always been done in a certain
  way doesnt mean it always has to be.
• Consider the feedback recipient at the other end
  of the process

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Conclusions

• Assessment (and particularly feedback) impacts
  significantly on student learning
• Concentrating on giving students detailed and
  developmental formative feedback is the single
  most useful thing we can do for our students.
• Summative assessment may have to be rethought to
  make it fit for purpose
• To do these things may require considerable
  imagination and re-engineering, not just of our
  assessment processes but also of curriculum
  design as a whole if we are to move from
  considering delivering content the most important
  thing we do.

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Useful references 1

• Biggs J (2003) Teaching for Quality Learning at
  University (Buckingham SRHE Open University
  Press)Bowl, M (2003) Non-traditional entrants to
  higher education they talk about people like me
  Stoke on Trent, UK, Trentham Books
• Brown, S. Rust, C Gibbs, G (1994) Strategies
  for Diversifying Assessment Oxford Centre for
  Staff Development.
• Boud, D. (1995) Enhancing learning through
  self-assessment London Routledge.
• Brown, G. with Bull, J. and Pendlebury, M. (1997)
  Assessing Student Learning in Higher Education
  London Routledge.
• Brown, S. and Glasner, A. (ed.) (1999) Assessment
  Matters in Higher Education, Choosing and Using
  Diverse Approaches, Buckingham Open University
  Press.
• Brown, S. and Knight, P. (1994) Assessing
  Learners in Higher Education, London Kogan Page.

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Useful references 2

• Brown, S., Race, P. and Bull, J. (eds.) (1999)
  Computer Assisted Assessment in Higher Education
  London Routledge.
• Carroll J and Ryan J (2005) Teaching
  International students improving learning for
  all Routledge SEDA series
• Falchikov, N (2004) Improving Assessment through
  Student Involvement Practical Solutions for
  Aiding Learning in Higher and Further Education,
  London Routledge.
• Gibbs, G (1999) Using assessment strategically to
  change the way students learn, In Brown S.
  Glasner, A. (eds.), Assessment Matters in Higher
  Education Choosing and Using Diverse Approaches
  Buckingham SRHE/Open University Press.
• Kneale, P. E. (1997) The rise of the "strategic
  student" how can we adapt to cope? in Armstrong,
  S., Thompson, G. and Brown, S. (eds) Facing up to
  Radical Changes in Universities and Colleges,
  119-139 London Kogan Page.

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Useful references 3

• Knight, P. and Yorke, M. (2003) Assessment,
  learning and employability Maidenhead, UK
  SRHE/Open University Press.
• Mentkowski, M. and associates (2000) p.82
  Learning that lasts integrating learning
  development and performance in college and beyond
  San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• Peelo, M and Wareham, T (eds) (2002) Failing
  Students in higher education Buckingham, UK,
  SRHE/Open University Press.
• Sadler, D R (1989) Formative assessment and the
  design of instructional systems Instructional
  Science 18, 119-144.
• Sadler, D R (1998) Formative assessment
  revisiting the territory Assessment in Education
  Principles, Policy and Practice 5, 77-84
• Pickford, R. and Brown, S. (2006) Assessing
  skills and practice London Routledge.

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Useful references 4

• Race, P. (2001) A Briefing on Self, Peer Group
  Assessment in LTSN Generic Centre Assessment
  Series No 9 LTSN York. Race P. (2006) The
  lecturers toolkit (3rd edition) London
  Routledge.
• Race P (2006) The Lecturers toolkit 3rd edition
  London Routledge
• Race P and Pickford r (2007) Making Teaching
  work Teaching smarter in post-compulsory
  education, London, Sage
• Rust, C., Price, M. and ODonovan, B. (2003).
  Improving students learning by developing their
  understanding of assessment criteria and
  processes. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher
  Education. 28 (2), 147-164.
• Ryan J (2000)A Guide to Teaching International
  Students Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning
  Development
• Yorke, M. (1999) Leaving Early Undergraduate
  Non-completion in Higher Education, London
  Routledge.