About Assessment: Why, What, How
Why Assess? | What to Assess? | How to Assess?
WHY ASSESS?
Why do we assess learners and their learning outcomes in universities? This may seem like a redundant question, but it is important for all teaching staff to reflect on the purpose of assessment. Reasons generally proposed for assessment include (Broadfoot and Black, 2004):
- it encourages learning
- it provides feedback on learning and teaching to both the learner and the teacher
- it documents competency and skill development
- it allows learners to be graded or ranked
- it validates certification and licence procedures for professional practice
- it allows benchmarks to be established for standards.
Assessment tasks determine to a significant extent what learners will learn, and the methods they will employ to retain, reproduce, reconstruct and engage with learnt material (Biggs, 2002). Learner responses to perceived, or actual, assessment tasks will often dominate other extrinsic or intrinsic motivators that initially drive learner behaviour.
References:
Biggs J.B. (2002). Aligning teaching and assessment to curriculum objectives. LTSN Imaginative Curriculum Guide IC022. http://www.ltsn.ac.uk/application.asp?app=resources.asp&process=full_record§ion=generic&id=154
Broadfoot P. and Black P. (2004). Redefining assessment? The first ten years of assessment in education. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, vol 11, issue 1, pp7-26.
WHAT TO ASSESS?
What are the fundamental principles in determining what should be assessed?
Should everything that is covered in a course be assessed?
What is essential to assess and what is not so important?
See... Rust C. (2002). 'Purpose and principles of Assessment' Learning and Teaching Briefing Papers series. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and learning Development. http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsd/2_learntch/briefing_papers/p_p_assessment.pdf 
Assessments should be directly related to the stated learning outcomes.
Bloom described the cognitive (what you know), affective (how you feel) and psychomotor (how you do something) domains of learning (http://www.tedi.uq.edu.au/downloads/Bloom.pdf ). To these we can also add a fourth domain, communication.
Skills and capabilities assessed in the different domains of learning
1. Cognitive Skills and Capabilities
In relation to the assessment of discipline content:
- understanding and using
- making meaning
- making decisions
- reflecting on meaning
2. Affective Skills and Capabilities
In relation to the assessment of discipline content and activities:
- making judgements
- valuing and characterising
- emotional responses
- managing time and resources
3. Psychomotor Skills and Capabilities
In relation to the assessment of discipline content and activities:
- physically manipulating objects and tools
- performing creative or physical activities
- using digital and communication equipment
4. Communication Skills and Capabilities
In relation to the assessment of discipline content:
- constructing a meaningful argument
- cogently presenting to others
Will you use criterion- or norm-referenced assessment?
If you wish to know how one student has performed in relation to another student, then norm-referenced assessment is appropriate (http://www.tedi.uq.edu.au/teaching/assessment/cra.html). If you wish to know whether a particular student has developed certain skills or capabilities, irrespective of the rest of the class, then criterion-referenced assessment is appropriate.
Features of criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessment adapted from: Outcomes Based Education and Assessment at UWA. Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, University of Western Australia. Updated 2005. See... http://www.catl.uwa.edu.au/current_initiatives/obe2/outcomes_based_education_and_assessment_at_uwa
Criterion-referenced
assessment |
Norm-referenced
assessment |
Mixed mode
application |
| Judgements about performance or competence are made against specified criteria. |
Judgements about performance or competence are made in relation to how a particular group of students performs. |
Marks would be based on explicit marking criteria given to students. |
| There is a direct relationship between the stated learning outcomes and the assessment tasks. |
The relationship between the stated learning outcomes and the assessment tasks may be direct or indirect. Students may not see the correlation between what they have learnt and the assessment tasks. |
Staff explicitly state how the assessment tasks will relate to the learning activities and content. |
| No scaling of marks, the predetermined pass mark is independent of the number of students above or below this mark. Everyone may achieve a High Distinction, Pass or Fail depending on how well they matched the criteria. |
Marks may be scaled and the Pass mark may vary depending on the distribution of marks for a particular group of students. An 'acceptable' fail rate is often used to determine the Pass mark or the number of High Distinctions. |
Grade descriptors are used so that students understand what is expected in order to obtain a particular grade or mark. The distribution of marks may still follow an historical pattern acceptable to the discipline. |
| Usually takes more time to produce an authentic assessment task as the criteria must be developed and aligned with learning activities. |
Developing appropriate assessment tasks still takes time but less time is usually allocated to align learning activities to the assessment. |
Assessment tasks and learning activities can be aligned so that grade descriptors can be used by students to benchmark their own performance. |
| Students are explicitly aware of the standard required to obtain a Pass before undertaking the assessment. |
Students usually only aware of the standard required after the assessment is marked. |
Grade descriptors are used so that students understand what is expected in order to obtain a particular grade or mark. |
| Detailed feedback is part of the assessment process and assists in future learning. |
Feedback is usually in the form of model answers. |
Rubrics are used to assist in providing feedback to students. See Assessment Design and Rubrics. |
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HOW TO ASSESS?
The Centre for the Study of Higher Education in the AUTC project Assessing Learning in Australian Universities (http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/) developed the following twelve principles for assessment activity:
- Assessment should help students to learn.
- Assessment must be consistent with the objectives of the course and what is taught and learnt.
- Variety in types of assessment allows a range of different learning outcomes to be assessed. It also keeps students interested.
- Students need to understand clearly what is expected of them in assessed tasks.
- Criteria for assessment should be detailed, transparent and justifiable.
- Students need specific and timely feedback on their work - not just a grade.
- Too much assessment is unnecessary and may be counter-productive.
- Assessment should be undertaken with an awareness that an assessor may be called upon to justify a student's result.
- The best starting point for countering plagiarism is in the design of the assessment tasks.
- Group assessment needs to be carefully planned and structured.
- When planning and wording assignments or questions, it is vital to mentally check their appropriateness to all students in the class, whatever their cultural differences.
- Systematic analysis of students' performance on assessed tasks can help identify areas of the curriculum which need improvement.
Assessing Learning in Australian Universities contains the following sections:
- Assessing Group Work
- Quality and Standards
- Academic Honesty
- Online Assessment
- Assessing Large Classes
- Assisting International Students
Resources
See... University of Adelaide, Centre for Learning and Professional Development. Assessment types (pdf 199kB) - a summary of different assessment types, why you might consider using them and what additional issues you may need to consider.
Central Queensland University has developed a web site devoted to world's best practice in student assessment in higher education, and related topics: http://ahe.cqu.edu.au/
Oxford Brookes University, Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development has some suggested methods for assessing learning in different contexts: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsd/2_learntch/methods.html
Search EdNA for Assessment in Higher Education resources.
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