Assessment Marking and Feedback Policy and …...3 Assessment Marking and Feedback V3.2 Formative Assessment relates to assessments that enable the monitoring of students progress

Assessment Marking and Feedback

Policy and Process

Reviewed by ND/JS

Reviewed on Nov 2018

Approved on Dec 2018

Approved by ASQC

Next Reviewed by Nov 2019

Version V3.2

2 Assessment Marking and Feedback V3.2

Introduction

UKCBC considers the fair, consistent and constructive feedback of assessment tasks as a central principle of its provision of a quality student experience leading to the achievement of qualifications and making positive impact on the professional lives of individuals. Assessment against set criteria and further feedback of how to improve, assist in the development of knowledge and skills.

UKCBC endeavours to maintain this development in a consistent and transparent process.

Links to QAA Quality Code and other regulatory sources

This document is designed to guide the process of assessment and set the expectation of academic feedback to UKCBC students. In doing so it takes reference from the Quality Code expectation B3 and B6

Higher education providers, working with their staff, students and other stakeholders, articulate and systematically review and enhance the provision of learning opportunities and teaching practices, so that every student is enabled to develop as an independent learner, study their chosen subject(s) in depth and enhance their capacity for analytical, critical and creative thinking. B3 Higher education providers operate equitable, valid and reliable processes of assessment, including for the recognition of prior learning, which enable every student to demonstrate the extent to which they have achieved the intended learning outcomes for the credit or qualification being sought. B6

Where UKCBC programmes rely on internal assessment and verification, the college refers directly to the relevant awarding organisation regulations. In the case of Pearson BTEC HND programmes, UKCBC ensures that its policies and practices are also fully in line with BTEC Centre Guide to Assessment: BTEC Levels 4 to 7 (2015-16).

Links to other policies

The remainder of this policy document will relate to the transparent expectations of students and staff to the assessment and marking process. UKCBC recommends that this policy is understood in the context of the wider maintenance of standards of Teaching and Learning, and particularly in relation to the following policies:

Teaching Learning and Assessment Strategy

Internal Verification Policy

Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy

Assessors Guide to Interpreting Turnitin Scores

Supporting students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Policy

Scope and definition of Assessment, Marking and Feedback

Assessment at UKCBC may be formative and summative in nature which are defined more fully

below:


Formative Assessment relates to assessments that enable the monitoring of students’ progress

during the teaching and learning process. This enables the lecturer to modify aspects of the

delivery, review the application case studies or recap previous elements of the curriculum.

Additionally it allows the student to consider their progress and reflect on where additional effort

may be required to achieve the expected results.

Summative Assessment is an evaluation of the student’s learning at the end of the teaching and

learning process. This is compared to published criteria that are integral to the programme

learning outcomes.

The assessment methodology utilised for each of these assessments will varying as the expected

outcome for the student and lecturer will also be different. However formative assessments may

include peer-to-peer quizzes, in-class multiple choice tests, impromptu student debates, or

informal student presentations. Summative assessments will have a more significant outcome

such as progression to the next stage or achievement of a qualification. Therefore the type of

assessment and associated quality processes will be more stringent. These may include detailed

reports or coursework, examinations, formal presentations, case reports or group projects.

Marking is the process of comparing the submitted assignment of student against a set of criteria

or expectations. If there is a binary result of pass/fail then nothing further can be achieved by the

student. However if there is a degree of rating against additional subsets of criteria that

demonstrate a more advanced understanding of the subject, application of the theory, or

arguments about any associated limitations, then this is interpreted as grading.

Feedback is the informal or formal commentary provided by an academic member of staff on

students’ academic progress. The breadth and depth of this may vary from high level observations

about a broad subject following a formative assessment, to detailed comprehensive comments

against set criteria in response to a summative assessment. Regardless of the type it is UKCBCs

expectation that all feedback is affirming, clear and constructive enabling students to self-reflect

and improve in future assessment periods.

Principles of Assessment, Marking and Feedback

The remainder of this document considers the practical processes and expectations of UKCBC relating to assessment, marking and feedback. UKCBC recognises that the effective delivery of these activities cannot be accomplished without the simultaneous execution of the Internal Verification activities. Neither activity can maintain academic standards or enhance student experience without the other. Nevertheless, this document will not replicate the details of the Internal Verification policy which should be regarded alongside the following details.

Assessment

In order that all students have a fair and consistent opportunity to evidence their learning, the assessment tasks set for students are set against the published module learning outcomes and associated criteria. These may be set by the awarding organisation such as AAT, or the responsibility resides with the college as in the case of Pearson BTEC HNDs offered at UKCBC. The design rules apply to both formative and summative assessment tasks and ensure that the assessment evidence from the student will be Valid, Authentic, Reliable and Sufficient.


Assessment Design

UKCBC Assessment are developed to ensure that the assignment submitted by the student is their own. The college recognises the value of academic integrity in developing professional integrity in students’ future careers and lives. UKCBC enables students to self-evaluate their academic integrity through various means including the use of the originality checker, Turnitin.

In managing the formative and summative assessment schedule, assessments are designed to be continuously rewarding for students, enabling them to work with the academic staff to identify areas of development and predict grades. Equally important is that a precise and relevant assessment task, in line with the assessment criteria provide a transparent mechanism to grade students without bias or prejudice.

The design of the assessment brief, subject to internal verification process, also informs students of details of the assignment relate to:

Date of submission

Location of submission hand-in point if not within Moodle/Turnitin

Opportunity and criteria of higher grades

Layout of evidence (report, essay, presentation, portfolio etc)

Consequences of late or non-submission

The development process for formative assessments is to be completed during the delivery of teaching and in line with the agreed schemes of work and lesson plans.

The development process for summative assessment must be completed before the teaching period of that module. The Assignment brief, including associated documentation, must be agreed through the internal verification process before distribution to students.

UKCBC accepts and welcomes that some students may have previous qualifications or experience that can be considered within the formal assessment process. This would be captured through a Recognition of Prior Learning request as detailed in the relevant policy.

Appendix 1 presents possible higher grade descriptors as developed by Pearson.

Assessment Submission

‘UKCBC delivers Pearson BTEC HNDs where assessment design and submission is managed internally at the college. UKCBC adopts the rules outlined by Pearson in relation to the management of summative assessment submissions.

Students are permitted two assignment attempts: a first submission and a resubmission.

If a student submits their first submission within the deadline provided and fails to pass the unit they will have the opportunity to resubmit their work (capped at pass).

If a student fails to submit their first assignment within the deadline provided it will be classed as a referral and they will have the opportunity to resubmit their work (capped at pass).


If a student fails to submit their first assignment within the deadline provided, and also fails to submit their resubmission within the deadline provided, they will have failed the unit as no additional opportunities for submission are permitted.

Resubmissions are to be submitted within 15 working days of a student receiving their feedback from their first submission.

Students with extenuating circumstances will be provided with alternative submission dates; determined on a case by case basis.

Submission and re-submission dates are planned for each module and take into account student and assessor workload across the programme, marking windows and time for additional academic input by the student following feedback. Submission and resubmission links are assigned within relevant Moodle pages. Only students eligible for resubmission will be granted a resubmission link.

All students declare that the work submitted is their own and research sources are fully acknowledged’. DoS

Extenuating Circumstances

Where a student has genuine extenuating circumstances (sometimes known as Mitigating circumstances) then an application can be made following the relevant policy and process.

Guidance for Student responsibilities for Assessment is found in Appendix 2

Marking

Assessors are allocated to the marking of assignments for particular modules. At UKCBC they are ordinarily the lecturers including the Module Leaders of that module.

Lecturers manage the marking of formative assessments within the timeframes presented with the scheme of work.

It is UKCBC’s practice to only accept summative assignments that have been submitted via Moodle/Turnitin.

Assessment standardisation takes place prior to the formal marking activity to ensure that all assessors are marking according to the assessment criteria, marking guide, rubrics and higher grading criteria. Standardisation may be a defined activity or may consist of evaluation of a common formative assessment activity earlier in the teaching period.

Assessors make use of Turnitin’s Grademark system, with marking completed using the online general comments area, marking rubrics and on- screen annotation. An indicative grade should also be provided. Marking within Moodle/Turnitin takes into professional consideration the originality score presented by Turnitin. Assessors make professional judgement of this percentage score taking note of type and volume of source of original material along with the degree of strong or weak academic practice. More details are provided to assessors during training and Programme Management and Standardisation Committee meetings utilising the Assessors Guide to Interpreting Turnitin Scores


Students are aware that grades given via Moodle/Turnitin are indicative, until verified and approved by the Assessment and Standards Board.

Mistakes in spelling and grammar should not influence assessment decisions unless:

the mistakes are so problematic that they undermine the evidence of student understanding, or

specific assessment criteria require good communication, spelling and grammar and/or correct use of technical language.

Grading

Where assignment submissions are made by the submission due date or authorised late submission date for those with extenuating circumstances, then the full spectrum of grades may be considered for the assignment. These may be referred, pass, merit or distinction and recorded as such within the UKCBC tracking and student records system.

Where an assignment has not been submitted the submission is marked as Zero in Moodle/Turnitin. If this is because of extenuating circumstances, then the student record is annotated to ensure that the full spectrum of grades are applicable to the submission when received by the college.

Allocation of the higher grades are subject to all lower criteria being evidenced within that assignment. The summary is presented below

Pass All assessment criteria achieved for each learning outcome

Merit All assessment criteria achieved for each learning outcome for pass, plus All merit criteria achieved

Distinction All assessment criteria achieved for each learning outcome for pass, plus All merit criteria achieved, plus All distinction criteria achieved

Grade Capping and Improvement Following Resubmission

UKCBC sets resubmission of assignment criteria in line with Pearson Guidelines, and as such resubmission opportunities are provided to students when appropriate.

If a first submission has been submitted within the deadline date provided and it achieves a pass or merit this will be the student’s final grade; no opportunity for grade enhancement is permitted.

If a first submission has been submitted within the deadline date provided and achieves a ‘referral’, the student will be given the opportunity to resubmit within 15 days of receiving their feedback. In this instance the student’s resubmission will be capped at a pass with no opportunity for achieving higher grades.


If a first submission is submitted beyond the deadline date provided (without extenuating circumstances) the student will be awarded a grade (capped at pass) and, due to not adhering to the first submission deadline date, the student will not be given the opportunity to resubmit the assignment.

If a student fails to submit a first submission and a resubmission within the deadline dates provided they will fail the unit and will need to repeat the unit in accordance with Pearson requirements.

Students submitting beyond the deadline date with extenuating circumstances will be provided with alternative deadline dates and will be managed on a case by case basis.

Feedback

UKCBC is totally committed to providing timely and constructive feedback on students’ academic progress including assignments. Feedback may be written and oral and provided to individuals or groups where the feedback is not personal and are relevant to many students. Summative feedback along with marking annotations are available to students on Turnitin.

At all times students are able to seek clarification on feedback either from the lecturer, assessor or the academic support team. The college is unable to deliver additional guidance or support, however confirmation that feedback is understood and applied can be provided.

It is expected that whilst spelling and grammar are not part of the grading criteria, formative feedback can include these type of errors with students reflecting and making suitable amendments within their summative assessment. (Appendix 3 – Feedback Guidance for Staff)

All feedback at UKCBC endeavours to follow the following points

1) Facilitates the development of self-reflection in student learning 2) Encourages learning dialogue between lecturer and student 3) Helps clarify what good achievement is (meeting criteria, expected standards) 4) Provides opportunities for students to review current progress and close the gap between

current and expected results 5) Delivers high quality, constructive information to students about academic status and

progress 6) Encourages positive, affirming motivational beliefs and self‐esteem. 7) Provides information to lecturers that can be used to review the delivery and content of

the learning sessions. 8) Enables module leaders to reflect on suitability of assessment tools and methods


Appendix 1 – Student Guidance on Assessments

Understanding the requirements of individual assessments, and actively engaging with

assessment tasks by devoting appropriate time and effort;

Developing an understanding of the relationship between intended learning outcomes

and assessment criteria, and standards in their programme of study;

Ensuring their academic work is authentic and honestly produced;

Finding out where, how and when work is submitted and how and when feedback is

provided;

Actively engaging, reflecting, and acting on provided feedback during formative and

summative activity; and

Seeking academic support when needed, for example, if feedback needs to be clarified

All submitted assignments should be in Word documents not pdfs, unless specified

otherwise.

Blank/corrupt files are treated as non-submission

Student should always retain a soft/digital copy of every submission until the completion

of study (backed up or stored on cloud or an online email system)


Appendix 2 – Feedback Guidance for Staff How To Provide Constructive And Developmental Feedback

There are several key aspects of providing quality feedback (Kathleen 2013). These aspects indicate that feedback should invite self-assessment, be positive, be balanced, be timely and expected, be open, honest and objective, be thorough, be clear and specific, be motivating, be private, be unhurried, invite feedback, be recorded.

In the same article, Kathleen (2013) outlined also five guiding principles of providing good feedback:

Principle 1: setting realistic goals (which refers to making your expectations known to the student well before the feedback is provided)

Principle 2: recognise student expectations of feedback (past student experiences of feedback can influence how they respond to it)

Principle 3 : gather and use information on student’s practice (student’s work experience is important and should be used in feedback)

Principle 4: act immediately (the feedback should be provided in a timely manner as soon after the completion of the required task so that learning is encouraged.

Principle 5: be specific (specific descriptive terms should be used in connection to specific assessment criteria) Other principles of constructive feedback should also be considered in conjunction with the above five principles (Mintz n.d.) :

Principle 6: Established a climate of trust and respect (students egos are fragile, so feedback should be encouraging and not create defensiveness).

Principle 7: Don’t overwhelm students (limit feedback to identified key areas that need additional work)

Principle 8: Use comments in “I” terms (I got lost here, did you mean to say?...)

Principle 9: Structure your comments as questions and suggestions, rather than as criticism (could ask students for more information in order to make them see an error, e.g. where is your Bibliography section?)

Principle 10: Attempt to rephrase the paper’s main points (build on students ideas)

One important aspect of providing constructive feedback is to attempt to formulate subject or topic specific questions , which will aid students to clarify and develop their ideas, e.g.: questions that probe assumptions, for example ‘what evidence supports your point…?’, lead to/ probe implications and consequences, help students recognise and clarify their thought processes, Present multiple possible answers. (Mintz n.d.).

UKCBC is very keen to enable students to become through an active academic dialogue self-critical and evaluative of their own and other peers knowledge, understanding, practical skills etc.

Peer feedback is used mainly during the formative assessment stage. Pearson also indicates that “self-assessment has been shown to improve attainment if it is used consistently. It encourages the reflective habit, essential for improvement; it ensures students take responsibility for their own learning; it focuses attention on criteria for success and increases effort and persistence” (Pearson 2015, p.16) .


Specific Assessment Guidance and Monitoring

Specific Marking Guidance for Pearson BTEC HND and How to Write Feedback?

Comments/ feedback from assessors must include the following blocks of writing:

a) For Pass (assessment criteria) a. WHAT the learner has done comment about the grade being successfully achieved b. Justification for your judgement, e.g. this needs to include comments about how well did

the student address the requirement. More specifically, you need to justify in connection to how the student has addressed:

i. the command word, ii. the specific required content

iii. any required links to case study or work experience.

b) For Merit (grading criteria), which are contextualised to either specific tasks/individual or clusters of Pass assessment criteria or awarded holistically.

a. Merit criteria are more about HOW the student has addressed the knowledge, i.e. presentation, structure, references, quality and effectiveness of judgements.

b. Ensure that all Pass assessment criteria and all the Merit grading criteria have been achieved before awarding an overall Merit comment about the grade being successfully achieved (M1, M2 and M3)

c. Justification of your judgement, e.g. this needs to include comments about how well did the student address the requirement. More specifically, you need to justify your judgement in connection to how the student has addressed the contextualised indicative characteristics, e.g. ‘You have successfully achieved M2 as you have used a variety of sources of information throughout your work’ or ‘You have achieved M1 as you have made effective judgements in connection to your answer for 1.2., more specifically you have analysed … at page x’

c) For Distinction (grading criteria), which are contextualised to either specific tasks/ individual or clusters of Pass assessment criteria or awarded holistically.

a. Distinction criteria are more about HOW the student has addressed the knowledge, i.e. by synthesis of different important ideas, by reflecting actively, proposing solutions that improve practice, propose innovative and creative solutions to problems that demonstrate lateral thinking.

b. Ensure that all Pass assessment criteria, all the Merit and Distinction grading criteria have been achieved before awarding an overall Distinction comment about the grade being successfully achieved (D1, D2 and D3)

c. Justification for your judgement, e.g. this needs to include comments about how well did the student address the requirement. More specifically, you need to justify your judgement in connection to how the student has addressed the contextualised indicative characteristic, e.g. ‘You have successfully achieved D1 as you have successfully synthesised ideas across task 1 and task 2’’ or ‘You have achieved D3 as you have successfully reflected on the knowledge from 1.3. And then proposed some appropriate solutions that solved some real issues presented with 1.4.’


2.2. GRADING AND QUALITATIVE FEEDBACK CHECKLIST

A ‘Grading and Qualitative Feedback Checklists’ (below) to be used as a main marking guidance during all

Standardization meetings

Formative and summative assessments (Individual marking sessions)

Moderation meetings (post-assessment)

Internal Verification events.

Guiding Criteria for Formative Feedback MUST BE MET * If any of the following criteria is not met, then the formative feedback might NOT be

effective.

Yes/No

THE BASIS FOR EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT

Made your expectations known to the student well before the feedback is provided

Structured your comments as questions and suggestions, i.e. probe assumptions by

seeking evidence, to support learners’ reflection/ self-assessment.

Guided students around appropriate learning behaviour and approach

DEVELOPING ASSESSMENT LITERACY

Recognised students expectations of feedback (student past experiences etc)

Encouraged to build student trust

Used comments in “I” Terms

Built on student’s ideas

Identified areas for student progression as well as for stretching and challenging them

Guided students to improve their knowledge, skills, understanding, grammar etc.


Guiding Criteria for Summative Feedback MUST BE MET

* If any of the following criteria is not met, then the assessment is NOT fit for purpose. Yes/No

THE BASIS FOR EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT & DESIGNING ASSESSMENT

All assessment criteria are signposted to whole or specific part of tasks.

Merit and Distinction grade descriptors awarded either: - Sequentially, i.e. alongside specific assessment criteria - Holistically, i.e. achieved through a task or whole student work

Indicated which assessment (for Pass) and grading criteria (for Merit and Distinction) the learner has achieved and what the learner has done well.

Indicated which assessment criteria the learner has not achieved and what was missing


Indicated which information the learners they could have drawn on (e.g. class notes; hand-outs; resources in assignment brief etc.)

Provided encouraging feedback

Used comments in “I” Terms

Structured your comments as questions and suggestions, i.e. probe assumptions by seeking evidence, to support learners’ reflection/ self-assessment.

Encouraged students to work independently

Complementary Criteria for Summative Feedback – DESIRABLE Yes/No

THE BASIS FOR EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT

Used student’s work experience in the feedback for either Pass, Merit or Distinction criteria.

Used students’ peer feedback and contributions on learning communities in the feedback for Merit or Distinction criteria.

Have clearly and actively used students work in teams, e.g.. Peer feedback, forums, learning communities, towards awarding higher grades (Merit, Distinction)


Included hints towards implications and consequences

Helped students to recognise and clarify their thought processes

Rephrased the paper’s main points (build on student’s ideas)

Documents

Assessment Marking and Feedback Policy and …...3 Assessment Marking and Feedback V3.2 Formative Assessment relates to assessments that enable the monitoring of students progress