Streamlining Assessment

Some Options forAssessment In

Class

Dr Sandy HutchisonCentre for Learning and Teaching

John Heywood

“The processes of assessment and curriculum design are one.”

Assessment in Higher Education

Michael Polanyi

“The highest forms of originality are far more closely akin to the lowest biotic performance than the external circumstances would indicate.”

Personal Knowledge

William Blake

“Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without Improvement are the roads of Genius.”

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Student-Centred Elements

•Active involvement in all phases of learning, especially feedback and evaluation;

•Responsibility for shaping new and re-organizing old concepts; 

•Ability to formulate good questions rather than sit back and wait for the answers.

Streamlining

•We developed clear marking criteria explicitly linked to specified aims and outcomes;

•We increased opportunities for assessment and feedback in class; 

Streamlining continued

•We introduced opportunities for self and peer-assessment;

•We tried to avoid bunching by mapping out activities so as not to conflict with key assessments in other modules; 

First Semester

• Ice-breaker – Introductions•M20 Noise Levels•Halloween Headlines F•Preliminary Report S•Town Planning Exercise /or Skyscraper Project F/S•IT Skills Assignment S•Final report S

Second Semester

•Drawing Exercise F•Individual Presentation S•“Convincing the Client” F/S•Site Visit Report S•Mock Public Enquiry F/S

Precepts

•Prepare the ground•Keep things simple•Keep in touch•Wait for benefits•Take pleasure in it