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Assessing and Giving Feedback

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Learning Outcomes

By the end of the session, participants should be able to:

• Identify the purposes and use of different modes of assessment in Higher Education

• Identify the key issues in designing assessments• Explain the benefits of using assessment criteria• Employ good practices in giving feedback to

students• Practice marking student presentations.

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National Student Survey 2006University of Nottingham Results

Aspect Rating /5

Teaching on my course: 4.0

Assessment and Feedback 3.2

Academic Support 3.7

Organisation and Management 4.0

Learning Resources 4.1

Personal Development 3.9

Average of the seven aspects above 3.8

Overall Satisfaction 4.0

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Purposes of assessment

1. To pass or fail a student2. To grade or rank a student3. To diagnose a student’s strengths and

weaknesses4. To provide feedback to students (and

teachers!)5. To motivate students (and teachers!)6. To provide a profile of what a student

has learnt

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7. To predict success in future courses and employment

8. To select future courses and employment

9. To give credence to the course10.To tell students what they have achieved11.To tell students how to improve their

performance(Goodall & Elvidge, 1999)

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Modes of Assessment1. Formative: Developmental: forming ideas; feedback

V

Summative: Judgmental: levels of achievement; a summation

2. Product: Outcome, e.g. project report by group

V

Process How product was produced. Skills development; contribution to group processes.

3. Criterion

Referenced: A constant standard – e.g. Driving test

V

Norm

Referenced: Group Referenced – e.g. ‘A’ Levels

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Designing assessments

• What are you assessing?– What learning outcomes are to be assessed?– What are the capabilities/skills (implicit or explicit) in

the outcomes?

• How will you assess it?– Is the assessment method consonant with the

outcomes and skills? (constructive alignment)– Is the method efficient in terms of student/staff time?– What alternatives are there? What are their

advantages/disadvantages?

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Constructive Alignment

"What do you want your students to learn?“

Learning outcome

"How can you enable them to learn it?"

Process of teaching & learning

"How can you discover whether they have learnt it or not?'

Assessment method & criteria

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Types of assessment

• Essay• Assignment• Individual project• Group project or

assignment• Dissertation• Examination• Viva• Performance• Self assessment• Peer assessment

PROS CONS

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Key issues

• Reliability– same assessment made by different people gives

the same result– different methods give the same result when

measuring the same thing

• Validity– instrument measures what it is intended to measure

• Educational merit v efficiency– Student learning – Your time and effort

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Using Assessment Criteria Can...

• Set explicit standards for judgements and decisions

• Improve the performance of the learner• Explain academic judgements• Improve robustness and reliability• Link assessments very closely with learning

objectives• Highlight strengths and weaknesses quickly

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Assessment Criteria

• Extent of knowledge of the subject• Structure• Clarity of argument• Use of examples • Spelling and grammar• Answering the question• Original thought• Relevance

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Plagiarism

“It is an academic offence for a student to use another person’s work and to submit it with the intent that it should be taken as his or her own work”

Regulations Governing Suspected Academic Offences, Nottingham University, 2005

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/administration/regulations/ug012/gen~edu.pdf

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Giving feedback

Based on resources developed by the Formative Assessment in

Science Teaching

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Formative Feedback

• FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT – enables identification by learner of gap between desired goal and present achievement (performance)

• FEEDBACK provides information about gap and helps learner to take action to close gap

• FORMATIVE FEEDBACK enables students to enhance future understanding and feeds forward

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Students’ perceptions of feedback

• Written feedback valued more than oral

• Feedback relevant to topics is no longer current (even when returned <3 weeks)

• Students read feedback

• Students rarely act on feedback to improve work / learning

Results of Formative Assessment in Science Teaching Survey, 2006

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Why don’t we provide effective written feedback?

• Acknowledges performance gaps, my provide information to close gaps, rarely explains how to use it

• Students may not understand it

• Wrong type – feeds back, not forward

• Students have no incentive to act on it

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Depth of feedback

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of performance gap (or of strength)

• CORRECTION – information provided to close gap

• EXPLANATION – how information closes gap (or strength explained / reinforced); links between student’s work & expected response or assessment critera

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Focussing written feedback to enhance student learning

• Feedback should:• Feed forward to be formative• Focus on learning rather than justifying

grade• Define the performance gap, provide

information to close the performance gap and explain its relevance

• Explain strengths as well as weaknesses by qualifying praise

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Purpose of Written Feedback

• To provide information

• To provide guidance on how work can be improved

• To provide something ‘concrete’ which can be referred to again

• To Encourage

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Giving Written Feedback

• Always write positive as well as negative comments

• Indicate how the student can improve their mark

• Link the grade with comments

• Never make personal comments

• Set criteria and your expectations for the standard of any future work

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Saving Time

• Proformas– Examples shown in the booklet ‘Assessing

students and giving feedback’

• Group feedback sheets – providing summary of common problems

• What % of the student mark is the assessed work?

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Reasonable Adjustments

• Discrimination against a disabled student, or prospective students, occurs:– When he or she is treated less favourably

compared to other students.– When there is a failure to make a reasonable

adjustment and the student is placed at substantial disadvantage compared to other students

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• Systems in place:– Alternative Examination Arrangements– Marking Guidelines for Dyslexic Students

• Further info is available from:– Academic Support – Disability Policy Advisory Unit