When planning your assessments, there are SIX main considerations which you need to think about:

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• When planning your assessments, there are SIX
  main considerations which you need to think
  about
• WHY am I assessing these students? What effects
  or outcomes do I expect the assessment to
  produce? Is this assessment Formative or
  Summative?
• WHAT am I going to assess? Exactly what evidence
  of student learning am I looking for? What must
  I assess, and what could I leave out?
• WHEN am I going to assess the students on this
  course?

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4. HOW am I going to assess? Of all the methods
that are available, what will be the best for
this particular teaching group, on this course,
at this particular time? What would be fair, and
give accurate and truthful information about my
students? 5. How am I going to INTERPRET, or
make sense of, the results of the
assessment? 6. How am I going to give FEEDBACK
about the results of the assessment to the
students (and possibly to other people?)
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• WHY ASSESS?
• There are many reasons why we assess student
  learning. Below we have listed a few. Can you add
  to the list?
• To identify where to start working with a group,
  by assessing existing levels of knowledge or
  understanding
• To identify and clarify student learning
  difficulties and plan appropriate remedial or
  supportive action for them.
• To assess whether students are ready to go on to
  new areas of a sequential course
• To check on your teaching success and as a
  result, possibly adjust your methods.
• To grade students
• To facilitate and / or reinforce learning
• To test student understanding or skill
• To motivate students and enhance their
  self-esteem
• To provide feedback to students to provide
  information to parents, employers, universities,
  to management, to society in general.
• To maintain standards
• To predict future performance

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• WHAT AM I GOING TO ASSESS?
• In simple terms, you must ensure that ALL of your
  assessment activities are ALWAYS related to
• The aims and objectives of the course, or part of
  it, that you are assessing
• The methodology which was used on the course by
  the teacher
• The learning methods which were experienced by
  the students on the course

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WHEN AM I GOING TO ASSESS? Assessment should
take place at all stages in a programme.
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At Entry or Pre - Entry Stage Some testing may
be necessary at Entry or Pre-Entry Stage to
assess potential students existing level of
knowledge, understanding or aptitude for a
particular course. Such assessment if often
called Diagnostic Testing. Diagnostic Tests are
often strongly graded in terms of difficulty of
questions, with easily achievable questions to
start with, building in complexity as the test
progresses. Good diagnostic tests will always
remain straightforward in design and operation in
order not to alarm or de-motivate potential
students before they have even signed up for the
course!
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• On Programme
• Formative assessment should take place at
  intervals throughout any taught programme. (Such
  testing is often, wrongly, called continuous
  assessment, but intermittent, regular or planned
  assessment would be more accurate terms).
• Formative assessment is intended to
• monitor student progress and suggest areas for
  improvement
• evaluate your teaching success
• discover student potential
• select students for new groups, courses,
  programmes
• The essential feature of formative assessment is
  that it
• allows you to give feedback to your students.

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At Exit Stage Summative assessment takes place -
the final examination, submission of assignments,
portfolio of evidence of achievement, oral
examination etc. The two main areas of feedback
to students at this stage are in the issuing of
their final grades and, depending on the
circumstances, the possible discussion with the
student about future progression onto other,
perhaps higher level, courses.
Now complete the task entitled Six
considerations of assessment self-check exercise