Developing an assessment project
Workshop on Teaching and Learning Grants
and Carrick Schemes, 2008
Clair Hughes and Merrilyn Goos
clair.hughes@uq.edu.au; m.goos@uq.edu.au
Session Overview
• Assessment project possibilities
• Examples/prompts to illustrate project possibilities
• Small group development of assessment questions to
guide project development
• Resources
Assessment project possibilities
Assessment and teaching interventions
Assessment
task
Course assessment
plan
‘Mapping the territory’
Program assessment
plan
Situational
analysis
Staff support
Capacity building
and resourcing
Mapping the territory
• Student and staff experience of assessment
• Student opinion (iCEVAL,
UQSES, focus groups)
• Student experience (task
mix, skill progression,
workload)
• Consistency of standards
and reward for effort
• Processes (appeals,
specials, supplementaries)
• ?
• ?
• Staff opinion (survey, focus
groups)
• Staff practice (task mix,
standards, moderation, …)
• Participation of casual staff
and tutors
• Opportunities for
development of knowledge
and skills
• ?
• ?
Consider………
• Appropriateness - the extent to which assessment tasks or plans:
– provide students with opportunities to develop and demonstrate
intended course and program learning objectives and graduate
attributes,
– comply with institutional policies and rules
• Effectiveness - the extent to which assessment tasks or plans:
– engage students in worthwhile learning behaviours
– develop student knowledge, skills, attitudes and/or behaviours
– provide students with feedback that is used to monitor and guide
their own learning
• Efficiency - the amount of resources or effort (student and staff)
needed to implement assessment tasks or plans in the context in
which assessment is undertaken.
Assessment task interventions
EXAMPLES
• Tasks that
• engage students in more worthwhile learning activities
• provide students with more valid opportunities to
demonstrate required learning objective/s
• increase student interest or motivation
• Development of criteria and standards and moderation processes that
support more defensible, consistent and transparent assessment
judgements
• Greater clarity of expectations (e.g. criteria and standards,
distinctions between collusion and collaboration)
• Teaching or assessment interventions (eg group work, feedback
processes, task authenticity, self- or peer-assessment etc) that
enhance student learning outcomes
• Assessment efficiencies in terms of cost, time and energy (e.g. use of
technology, task selectivity, peer assessment and feedback)
Course assessment plan interventions
EXAMPLES
• Activities that require students to engage with feedback
provided and apply it to future tasks
• Stronger links between course tasks to provide a more
coherent learning experience and boost applicability of
feedback
• Spread and timing of assessment that increases student
engagement throughout the course
• Grading processes that accurately reflect course learning
objectives
• Assessment efficiencies in terms of cost, time and energy (e.g.
use of technology, greater selectivity, peer assessment and
feedback)
Program assessment interventions
EXAMPLES
• Streamlining of program assessment tasks and processes to:
• provide systematic and coherent development of
program learning objectives (e.g. in terms of graduate
attributes)
• ensure a range and balance of tasks without significant
gaps or unnecessary repetition
• maximise use of available resources (staff and
equipment)
Staff assessment support
EXAMPLES
• Development support opportunities that:
– are customised more closely to staff needs
– enable staff to share effective practice
– are inclusive of all staff members (e.g. casual staff, tutors)
– provide opportunities for mentoring and feedback from
experienced colleagues
– maximise positive impact on student motivation and
learning
– are responsive to student opinion and other evaluative data
– identify ways to deploy available resources (e.g. tutors,
TEDI staff, iCEVAL & UQSES reports) and processes most
efficiently
Examples of assessment projects funded
through UQ T&L Strategic Grants (small)
• Developing flagship curriculum and assessment practices in gateway
and capstone courses which encourage and test the understanding of
disciplinary threshold concepts (Prof Fred D’Agostino)
• The development of critical legal skills by Law students through
innovative approaches to teaching and assessment (Dr Nick James)
• Peer Assessment Learning Sessions: An innovative feedback technique
for large engineering classes (Dr Liza O’Moore)
• The use of standardized patients and computer based simulations in
the assessment of clinical learning in first year Audiology students (Dr
Wayne Wilson)
• Development of a Flexible Training Package for Clinical Educators
Using the Student Placement Evaluation Form (SPEF) (Dr Merrill
Turpin)
• Promoting first-year student engagement and learning through
innovative approaches to feedback and group work in an Agricultural
Mathematics course (Dr Madan Gupta)
Discussion
• In groups of 3 or 4:
– identify an assessment issue in your own educational context
– suggest a way of addressing this issue to enhance the assessment
experience of students and/or staff
– frame the project as an investigation question
• To what extent does a flexible training package enhance
consistency of practice and assessment judgements among
clinical educators using the ‘Student Placement Evaluation
Form’?
• How effective are innovative teaching and assessment
activities based on a model of critical thinking in developing
the critical legal skills of Law students?
• How effective is …..X…… in speeding up the feedback process
in ABCD2345 while retaining previous levels of detail?
– Share your question with the larger group
Helpful resources
• UQ Teaching and Learning Rules and Policies
http://www.uq.edu.au/teachinglearning/index.html?page=7428
• UQ Teaching and Learning Enhancement Plan
http://www.uq.edu.au/teachinglearning/index.html?page=7421
• UQ T&L Strategic Grant scheme (successful submissions)
http://www.uq.edu.au/teachinglearning/index.html?page=64739
• TEDI assessment resources
http://www.tedi.uq.edu.au/teaching/assessment/index.html
• Carrick Institute Assessment projects (Reports of completed
projects)
http://www.carrickinstitute.edu.au/carrick/go/home/grants/
pid/342