Assessment in Higher EducationFollow-up to January 2016 NAPP workshop

Assessment grading� What I wish I had told students about how

I was going to grade / mark their work

� What I wish colleagues had told me about what I should tell students about how their work is going to be graded / marked

Rubrics/templates/schemes/memoranda/guidelines

For discussion:What is a rubric?

How did I ‘learn’ to mark/grade student work in my discipline?

How do I use rubrics in my assessment work?

Rubrics/templates/schemes/memoranda/guidelines

For discussion and reflection:

What are the advantages and limitations of using assessment rubrics?

Rubrics/templates/schemes/memoranda/guidelines� Advantages:

� Enable one to think about what one is trying to assess and at what level/s

� Allow for thinking about what is ‘measurable’ and how it might be measured

� Allow for standardisation of assessment� Create conditions under which assessment

can be replicated� Create framework for feedback to students

Rubrics/templates/schemes/memoranda/guidelines� Advantages (continued):

— Allow other academics access to the assessment

― A modified rubric can give students an insight into how to prepare for the assessment (caveat)

— Can enable an opportunity to evaluate the relative importance of a topic/theme/concept/aspect

— Allow external examiners a chance to verify the judgment

Rubrics/templates/schemes/memoranda/guidelines� Limitations

� May block creative/original responses not cued in the guideline

� Could ‘blind’ the assessor to an unexpected response

� May assume that learning is tangible/ ‘measurable’/visible – how does one measure the more intangible or abstract or complex?

� May trivialise the learning / create dogma

Rubrics/templates/schemes/memoranda/guidelines� Limitations (continued):

� May assume that an interpretive act of judgment is uniformly understood or amenable to other assessors – there is uniform/universal understanding of what a ‘good’ answer is; how a problem is solved; that what is tacit can be made explicit

� Potentially encourage students to ‘find the right answer’

Some useful resourcesAngelo, T. & Cross, P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: a Handbook for College Teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Downing, S.M. & Haladyna, T.M. (Eds) (2006). Handbook of Test Development. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum

Some useful resourcesFreeman, R. & Lewis, R. (1998). Planning and Implementing Assessment. London: Kogan Page

Gibbs, G. (2010). Using Assessment to Support Student Learning. Leeds: Leeds Met Press

Nitko, A.J. (2001). Educational Assessment of Students. New Jersey: Merrill