Introduction Assessment plays an important part in the teaching-learning process
at all levels of education. Since assessment plays such an important
and significant part in the future of students there is no doubt that
any assessment system will determine what students learn and the way in
which they do this. Hence assessment will also determine the way in
which we teach and what we teach.
But assessment is not just about grading and examinations. It is
also about getting to know our students and the quality of their
learning and to use this knowledge and understanding to their benefit.
Assessment is without doubt one of the major ''drivers'' of the
teaching-learning process. It is thus important for teaching staff to
be familiar not only with the technical aspects of the many different
forms of assessment currently in use but also with their advantages and
limitations and about assessment issues and concerns.
Resource Materials
- Invitation to Assessment
- Sally Brown, Director of the Quality Enhancement Unit at the
University of Northumbria, orginally hosted the pages on assessment. In
this article she gives a personal view on some of the pros and cons of
assessment.
- A Survey of Assessment
- When the pages on assessment were begun an on-line survey on the
subject carried out through Deliberations. This is a report of the
survey data collated by mid-1996.
- The Art of Assessment - A comprehensive overview of assessment by Phil Race
which discusses the advantages and limitations of the various forms of
assessment. This article first appeared in the New Academic, 1995 vol.4
issue 3 and is reprinted with permission.
- Innovative Student Assessment - Graham Mowl discusses what constitutes innovative assessment and the implications of introducing new methods.
- An Assessment Manifesto - A 10-point manifesto on assessment from 500 Tips for Tutors by Sally Brown, Phil Race and Brenda Smith published by Kogan Page, 1996.
- Papers on Assessment from the Oxford Center for Staff and Learning Development (OCSD), UK
- This link takes you to a list, which includes extracts from papers on
assessment, published in Deliberations. The extracts are reprinted,
with permission, from the OCSD Improving Student Learningand Course Design for Resource-Based Learning series.
- Papers on Assessment from the Staff & Educational Development Association (SEDA), UK
- This link takes you to a list, which includes extracts from papers on
assessment, published in Deliberations. The extracts are reprinted,
with permission, from the SEDA Papers series. Papers 80 and 96 are
especially relevant to assessment issues.
Some issues on assessment for deliberation and discussion
- To what extent should an assessment scheme be part and parcel of course design?
- Many suggestions have been made for improving assessment (see for example Changing Assessment to Improve Learning). What has been your experience is using non-traditional methods of assessment (such as open-book or ''seen'' exams)?
- Can multiple-choice questions test higher order cognitive skills? What is your experience of this?
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Readers'' Comments: A lively and continuous process of debate
on learning and teaching in higher education is a key aim of
Deliberations. We invite you to share your thoughts on this topic with
other readers. Comments are posted in a comments archive.
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