Why Assess Students?
1. Assessment Drives Student Learning
Realising that students generally focus on assessment first and foremost, we can design assessments to encourage students to focus on the development of a deep understanding of key concepts and the application of transferable skills they will need after graduation. What types of learning are important in your discipline/profession?
Different Teacher and Learner Perspectives on Assessment
(Adapted from Biggs 2003, p.141)
2. Assessments can be explicitly designed to align with learning outcomes including graduate attributes, content areas including key concepts/principles/skills/attitudes, teaching and learning activities and evaluation.
You know what you want students to learn. How do you plan to design/redesign your assessments to motivate students to engage with these learning outcomes?
Constructive Curriculum Alignment (Adapted from Biggs 1996)
Assessments can be interrelated to all the above elements in ways that are demonstrated clearly to students and others.
3. Assessment is a professional activity and judgment required for quality assurance and certification
Quality Assurance
- To provide feedback to students
- To provide feedback to lecturers
- To improve teaching as assessments are reviewed
- To monitor standards over time
Certification
- To pass/fail a student
- To grade/mark
- To licence to proceed/practice
(Mutch and Brown 2001)
