Assessment Careers: Enhancing Learning Pathways through Assessment

Dr Gwyneth Hughes

The importance of assessment“Assessment procedures have a major impact on

students’ approaches to learning”

(Ramsden, 2003)

“Learning is so driven by assessment that the form and nature of assessment often swamps the effect of any other aspect of the curriculum” (Boud,1990, p. 103)

“Students learn what they think will be tested” (Biggs and Tang, 2011) 2

Some current problems with feedback• Lack of learner engagement with and understanding of

feedback (Lizzio & Wilson, 2008)

feedback given feedback received and acted upon

• Generally, the feedback ‘fed back’ more than ‘forward’ so

feedback does not encourage dialogue

(Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2005).• Feedback rarely scrutinised, when it is practice is inconsistent.

• Lack of continuity of feedback

assignment 1 assignment 2 assignment 3• Critique and advice are content focused on the current

assignment. Often too late to be helpful.• Feedback on generic and discipline skills is often lacking. • Feedback is not stored and readily accessed over time.• Lack of information about progress, but this could be

motivating (Hughes, 2014).

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Assessment Careers

• 3 year project funded by JISC with the aim of using technology to enhance assessment and feedback

• Project video

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Assessment Careers Project

• Year 1: Baseline reporting and feedback analysis• Year 2 (2012/13): Five programmes pilot a Student

Response form (cover sheet)• Year 3 ( 2013/14) Institutional implementation including a

Moodle feedback reporting tool and Feedback policy

Assessment Careers: Institute of Education website:

www.ioe.ac.uk/assessmentcareers

Student Feedback Response Forms Thinking about the feedback on your draft (or previous)

assignment, please indicate what the key points were:

For each point state what action you took to respond to this feedback in preparing the draft/final version of your assignment. Your response will help your assessor identify the progress you have made and suggest further action to help you develop.

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Pilot programmes

Pilot 1 MA Education, Health Promotion and International Development

Pilot 2 MRes in Educational and Social Research

Pilot 3 MA Clinical Education 

Pilot 4 MA/MSc Psychology of Education

Pilot 5 PGCE Primary

Approx. 400 students and 30 staff in total.

 

 

Student responsesI like being able to ask the tutor quite directly the area that need work

and [what] to focus on (MRes student)

Particularly as I'd taken a long break between this and the previous module so it actually made me go back and consider feedback from earlier assignments.(MA in Health Education student)

I just created a list of the things that I changed and it didn’t take me long but I did do it after I’d changed everything, I didn’t do it as I went along. I thought it was more of an exercise I’m going to hand my essay in and I need to do this. (PGCE student)

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Staff responsesI found it easier but not necessarily quicker to provide the feedback

because I had a sense that I was providing feedback to someone about something rather than on a piece of written work... it brought it to life in some way.

I have endeavoured to be still more specific about what the student should change to further improve their assignment and in giving examples about how they might change the assignment in this way. (PGCE tutor)

It seemed that many students needed to be taught how to use feedback, what it could be for, and the role it could play in the learning process.(MRes tutor)

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Greater transparency over feedback and assessment processes in general

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ReferencesHattie, J. & Timperley, H. 2007. The Power of Feedback. Review of

Educational Research 77 no. 1: 81-112.

Hughes, G. (2014) Ipsative Assessment: Motivation through marking progress Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

 Lizzio, A. & Wilson, K. 2008. Feedback on assessment: student’s perceptions of quality and effectiveness. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 33 no.3:263-275.

Nicol, D. & Macfarlane,-Dick, D. 2006. Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education 31 no. 2: 199-218.

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