Assessment

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Assessment
Simon van Heyningen The University of Edinburgh
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WHAT I SAID LAST YEAR
Nobody likes assessment neither staff nor
students. Currently onerous all round. Not
usually efficient, robust, accurate, fair, or
capable of delivering the information candidates
and other people want.
Yet we have to have it.
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Themes we said we would follow

• Certification, grading and recording achievement.
  Honours classification
• How to use assessment to motivate learning
  (summative and formative)
• Over-assessment
• Improving feedback to students

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More Themes

• Developing a variety of methods
• Fairness (consistency and reliability with
  multiple markers, incorporating fieldwork and
  practicals, etc.)
• Students with diverse needs, including those of
  mental health
• Assessment at programme and module level

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What have we done?

• Eight specific workshops and a publication from
  this. 450 different people came good feedback.
• Honours degree classification system and our
  ideas are spreading
• Student scoping work
• Subject level work, e.g. through the LTSNs
  (Higher Education Academy)
• Some work on students with disabilities

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Honours ClassificationMeasuring and Recording
Student Achievement

• Present system indefensible. Different marking
  profiles produce different results.
• Found almost only in the UK and similar systems
  but no obvious better models elsewhere.
• Plenty of worse ones. Grade Point Average.

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We are agreed that something must be done. At
the worst, we need new profiles Should be UK-wide
if possible. Plenty of pressure for this.
The UK Honours Classification System available
here today and will be more widely distributed. A
basis for discussion throughout Scotland and
elsewhere.
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Methods of AssessmentOutcome of the Workshops

• Get away from over-assessment, especially
  summative
• Increase the amount of useful formative
  assessment
• Provide better feedback there are many
  different ways of doing that
• Match assessment to outcomes
• Make greater use of new tried methods group
  and peer assessment

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• Involve students in their own assessment. Explain
  the problems and difficulties to them.
• Overcome perceived institutional barriers to
  change QA procedures, validation, conservative
  external examiners
• Dont try to be too precise (horrible example of
  pressure on English A-levels)

Workshop outcomes will be published. Free
download from www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk
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What we are not sure if we have done or not

• Stimulated real thinking about assessment within
  institutions including by people who dont
  usually go to meetings.
• Helped students
• Raised the profile of assessment within
  institutions
• Empowered people to bring about change

Only time will tell
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Lessons

• Involve everybody who is working in the field
• Try to be constructive
• Must not be a box-ticking exercise designed to be
  used in ELIR (Enhancement-Led Institutional
  Review)

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Assessment
Simon van Heyningen The University of Edinburgh