Assessment Fora
Assessment Code of Practice
Grade Descriptors
Aligning the Curriculum
Multiple Choice Questions
Technology Enhanced Learning
Department of Higher Education in conjunction with the DVC for Academic Affairs
4th – 12th February 2014
Assessment Code
Of Practice
Assessment Code of Practice
Purposes of the Code:
• to ensure integrity, fairness and rigour in the application of academic
judgement to the assessment of students’ work;
• and in the associated administrative processes
Principles:
• assessment strategy for programmes
• alignment with learning outcomes at programme and module level and
linked with grade descriptors
• assessment is proportionate - not under or over assessed
• feedback to students – helpful in feeding forward
• quality control (valid processes in plan) / quality assurance (mechanisms
to check these)
• learning support
Assessment Code of Practice
Purpose of assessment:
• design
• relevance to learning outcomes differentiated by level where there is an
integrated Masters (e.g. BEng / MEng)
• feedback
Definitions:
• formative assessment – all modules, particularly with a single Unit of
Assessment, need to include an opportunity for feedback
• summative assessment
• coursework
• examination
Validity of assessment methods:
• important link to learning outcomes
• aligned with grade descriptors
• CPD for staff
Grade Descriptors
• University of Surrey Grade Descriptors: Undergraduate Programmes:
https://www.surrey.ac.uk/learningandteaching/strategy/University_of_Surrey_Grade_Descriptors.pdf
• University of Surrey Grade Descriptors: Postgraduate Programmes:
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/fhms/learningandteaching/imagesandfiles/PG%20Grade%20Descriptors%202012.pdf
• University Grade Descriptors (GDs) – A Short Guide:
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/learningandteaching/strategy/University_Grade_Descriptors-Short_Guide.pdf
Aligning the
Curriculum
Constructive Alignment
(Biggs, 1999)
Generic Level
Descriptors:
National Qualifications
Framework
Teaching and
Learning Strategy
Programme
Aims and
Learning
Outcomes
Module Aims
and Learning
Outcomes
Subject Level
Descriptors:
Curriculum Content
Subject Benchmarks
Professional Standards
Assessment
Methods
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module the student should be able to...
LO1: Explain the theory of key optical engineering concepts such as
the formation of fibre optics, images and holograms.
LO2: Apply transform techniques to specific practical contexts such
as optical filtering
LO3: Evaluate the use of optical innovations (e.g. fibre optics,
images and holograms) in an everyday product such as digital
scenography, medical imaging and mobile technology.
Summative Assessment
3 x individual lab reports
1500 words (30%)
 [LO1 & 2: Explain and Apply]
1 x group-based PBL project report
3000 words (40% individual mark; 30% group
mark).
 [LO1 & 3: Explain and Evaluate ]
Formative Assessment
Formative Assessment
-
i.e. not contributing to the final grade
Online MCQ prior to each lab (Surrey Learn)
Multiple Choice
Questions
Advantages of MCQs
• Facilitate coverage of the syllabus
• Can be marked quickly
• Can be delivered and marked electronically
• Allow objective scoring (right / wrong)
• Can allow a number of teachers to submit questions
• Often recommended for formative assessment.
Challenges of MCQs
• Good questions are time-consuming to design
• Can focus on recall of facts
• Emphasise atomization of syllabus
• Can encourage surface approaches to learning
• May encourage superficial feedback to students
• Can be answered by guesswork
Relating MCQs to Bloom’s Taxonomy
HIGH
Level of
learning
LOW
HIGH
Level of
difficulty in
designing
questions
LOW
Guesswork & MCQs
An inherent problem with MCQs is that students can guess.
Whilst some have argued for negative marking to discourage this,
we do not use negative marking at Surrey for the following reasons:
• It is at odds with our credit framework based on learning outcomes
(either achieved or not)
• Places MCQ marking out of step with marking of
other assessment methods
• Does not fit with our university criteria (0-100%)
• Encourages risk-averse behaviours amongst students
• Creates marking anomalies that do not reflect learning achieved
69 correct – 31 incorrect = 38% fail
vs
• Can skew overall module results
40% correct + 60 no response = 40% pass
http://testing.byu.edu/info/handbooks/betteritems.pdf
Technology Enhanced
Learning
Electronic Assessment
Management (EAM)
“Using technology to support the assessment
lifecycle, from the electronic submission of
assignments to marking and feedback”
JISC http://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/electronic-assessment-management
Online submission
Online marking
Online submission
Replacing paper-based submission with an
online system:
• Convenience, avoiding printing costs, time
savings
• Anxiety reduction - automatic proof of receipt
• Confidence provided by improved privacy,
safety and security
• Electronic reminders and deadlines
• Meeting expectations: this is normal practice in
a digital age
Online marking and
feedback
• MCQs – automation, summative, formative,
diagnostic, analytics, troublesome knowledge.
• Electronic marking - GradeMark - part of the
Turnitin suite of software and gives Tutors a
digital system for grading and commenting on
student work.
Online marking and
feedback
• Inline comments
• Highlighting tool
• QuickMarks – predefined and userdefined marks for inline comments that
can be dragged directly on the paper
• Predefined and user-defined rubrics to
evaluate student papers against
qualitative or quantitative criteria
• Voice Comments to create personalised
audio feedback
Online marking and
feedback
• Students: legibility of feedback and being able to access it
quickly
• Markers:
• found Grademark fairly easy to access and use
• liked being able to customise and re-use comments, add
audio feedback, and see Originality reports whilst marking
• some markers annotated scripts more fully, adding more
detail and providing what they saw as higher quality
comments
“I think it’s great, there are certainly clear benefits for staff – it means that all of your marking is
kept in one place. And the additional tools that they provide means that we can really give good
constructive feedback to the students.”
Challenges
Bespoke workshops:
Online marking for staff
A hands-on experience of using Turnitin’s Grademark tool to
mark assignments submitted online.
• Provide annotated, general and rubric style feedback to
students using Grademark
• Identify the benefits and challenges of online marking using
Grademark
• Manage the release of feedback to students (optional)
So far this has been delivered to over 70 staff in Biosciences.
Assessment Fora 2014
 Assessment Code of Practice; Grade Descriptors; Aligning the Curriculum;
Multiple Choice Questions; Technology Enhanced Learning
• What are the topics that you would like further information / training on?
• Learning and Teaching Week (19th – 23rd May 2014)
Are there any questions relating to
what has been discussed?
http://tinyurl.com/AssessmentFora