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Introducing Assessment

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Dr. Ciara O'Farrell, CAPSL, TCD. Fact of life ' ... Dr. Ciara O'Farrell, CAPSL, TCD. Some methods of assessment. Essays. Unseen written exams ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Introducing Assessment


1
Introducing Assessment
  • Dr. Ciara OFarrell
  • CAPSL
  • Trinity College Dublin

2
Magic Wand
  • What one thing would you change about assessment,
    and why?

3
Fact of life
  • Students learn what they think they will be
    assessed on
  • (Biggs)

4
Learning Outcomes
  • By the end of this workshop, you should be able
    to
  • Define some purposes of assessment at third level
  • Apply the principles of constructive alignment
  • Identify and apply different methods of
    assessment
  • Differentiate between formative, summative and
    continuous assessment

5
Purposes of Assessment
  • Form groups
  • Take five minutes to jot down your individual
    current reasons for assessing students

6
Possible Purposes of Assessment
  • Achievement of Learning Outcomes
  • Grade or mark
  • Pass or fail
  • Licence to practice
  • Allow to proceed
  • Predict success
  • Peer benchmarking
  • Learn
  • Feedback to staff
  • Feedback to students
  • Enhance motivation
  • Public relations, respectability and
    accountability
  • Huntley-Moore/Panter

7
Constructive Alignment
  • Teachers responsibility to fashion a learning
    environment where learning activities are wholly
    appropriate to achieving the desired learning
    outcomes.
  • Cf Biggs 1999

8
(No Transcript)
9
Matching assessment with Learning Outcomes
  • Ensure assessment method tests learning outcome
  • Ensure assessment does not test any significant
    learning outcomes that are not explicitly stated
    as such
  • Ensure all major course outcomes are assessed

10
Writing Learning Outcomes
  • E.g. After completing this lecture/tutorial you
    should be able to
  • The specified action must be done by the
    learners.
  • The specified action by the learners must be
    measurable.
  • S.M.A.R.T.

11
Good or not so good?
  • Participants will understand the nine reasons for
    conducting a needs assessment.

12
Better?
  • Participants will list nine reasons for
    conducting a needs assessment.

13
Good or not so good?
  • Participants will develop an appreciation of
    cultural diversity in the workplace.

14
Better
  • Participants will summarize in writing their
    feelings about cultural diversity in the
    workplace.

15
Some sample action verbs
  • compile, create, plan, revise, analyze, design,
    select, utilize, apply, demonstrate, prepare,
    use, compute, discuss, explain, predict, assess,
    compare, rate, critique
  • AVOID know, become aware of, appreciate, learn,
    understand, become familiar with

16
Activity Learning outcomes
  • Individually list a sample learning outcome for a
    course/lecture you will be teaching (5-10
    minutes)
  • Form groups
  • Evaluate each others learning outcomes are
    they clear and accessible?

17
Methods of Assessment
  • Work in groups
  • Brainstorm as many traditional and diverse
    methods of assessment as you can.

18
Some methods of assessment
  • Essays
  • Unseen written exams
  • Reports
  • Case studies
  • Portfolios
  • Projects
  • Vivas
  • Assessed seminars
  • Poster presentations
  • Annotated bibliographies
  • Logs
  • Diaries
  • Reflective journals
  • Critical incident accounts

19
Some methods of assessment
  • Field studies
  • Exhibitions
  • Critiques
  • Theses
  • Open-book exams
  • Take-away papers
  • Simulations
  • CAA
  • In-tray exercises
  • Live assignments
  • Multiple choice questions
  • Mini-practicals
  • Modified essay questions
  • OSCEs
  • Group projects
  • Work-based assessment

20
Trends in assessment
  • Traditional
  • Examinations
  • Lecture-led
  • Implicit criteria
  • Product assessment
  • Content
  • Decontextualised
  • Convergent
  • Individual
  • Developments
  • Course work
  • Student-led
  • Explicit Criteria
  • Process assessment
  • Skills
  • Contextualised
  • Divergent
  • Group
  • Brown and Biggs

21
Activity
  • Individually Go back to the learning outcome you
    wrote in the last activity.
  • List one or more methods of assessment that would
    assess achievement of this learning outcome.
  • Form groups, discuss, and report to group.

22
Summative assessment
  • Used to signify competence or contributes to a
    students grade
  • Should determine whether, and to what extent,
    student has obtained learning outcomes

23
Formative assessment
  • Used to provide feedback to the student on their
    learning
  • Generally felt - should not form part of the
    summative mark

24
Continuous Assessment
  • Series of tasks individually assessed
  • Timely feedback important

25
Involving others in the assessment process
  • Self assessment
  • Peer assessment
  • Group assessment

26
Reflecting on assessment
  • What types of questions did the students do well
    on? In what respects?
  • What types of questions did they struggle with?
    In what respects?
  • What kind of tasks were there a variety of
    responses to?
  • Which assessments did they avoid?
  • Which assessment questions were the most popular?
  • What can all this tell us about learning,
    teaching and assessment?

27
Food for group discussion
  • Something like 90 of a typical university
    degree depends on unseen time-constrained written
    examinations, and tutor-marked essays and/or
    reports. (Biggs)

28
Food for group discussion
  • Why is feedback so important?
  • Will students take formative assessment
    seriously?
  • How can you make feedback more efficient?

29
Assessment checklist
  • Are the aims and learner outcomes of the module
    clear?
  • Would attainment of these learner outcomes mean
    that the aims of the module have been achieved?
  • Are the assessment criteria for this module clear
    and explicit?
  • Are all the appropriate learning outcomes
    assessed?
  • Does the assessment scheme enable students to
    obtain feedback on major elements of the module?
  • Is each assessment method or task appropriate?
  • Is the marking scheme likely to be reliable?
  • Is the assessment task efficient?
  • Have you performed an analysis of the assessment
    results?

30
A compulsory examination for all assessors (see
handout)
  • Answer all questions. This examination is
    un-timed. Consultation with others (including
    students) and reference to texts and other
    sources is RECOMMENDED.
  • 1. What intended learning outcomes do you assess?
    How well does your approach to assessment align
    with these outcomes?
  • 2. Justify and criticise your choice of
    assessment methods and tasks used to assess the
    outcomes in question 1.
  • 3. Refer to relevant research on assessment in
    your answer.
  • 4. Describe, justify and criticise your use of
    criteria, methods of grading and/or marking.
  • 5. Outline and justify your approach to providing
    feedback to students. Refer to relevant research
    in your answer.
  • 6. With reference to research findings, describe,
    justify and criticise your marking techniques to
    overcome the following
  • a) variations in standards on a single occasion
  • b) variations in standards on different
    occasions
  • c) variations between assessors
  • d) differences in students handwriting.
  • 7. How do you ensure that your standards are
    similar to standards adopted in comparable
    assessments and examinations?
  • 8. What values underlie your approach to
    assessment in higher education? How are they
    manifest in your practice?
  • Evaluate your answers to questions 17.
  • Reproduced from
  • George Brown, (2001), Assessment A Guide for
    Lecturers, LTSN Generic Centre, Assessment
    Series No.3.
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