8/25/2021 Why is assessment important?

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Engage in Assessment
Why is assessment important?
'Nothing we do to, or for our students is more important than
our assessment of their work and the feedback we give them on
it. The results of our assessment influence students for the rest
of their lives...'

Race et al. 1

Assessment and its associated feedback are essential to student learning. However, you may find
that more of your time is taken up with the areas of assessment associated with quality assurance,
rather than its potential to support students' learning. Well designed assessment has numerous
benefits aside from the obvious one of providing a measure of students' progress as it can be a
means to engage students with their learning. Ideally then, you should aim to support active
learning rather than Assessment of Learning to ensure that the assessment process is an integral
part of your students' education.

What is Assessment for Learning?

Assessment for Learning focuses on the
opportunities to develop students' ability to
evaluate themselves, to make judgements about
their own performance and improve upon it. It
makes use of authentic assessment methods
and offers lots of opportunities for students to
develop their skills through formative
assessment using summative assessment
sparingly.

Assessment is inescapable
Assessment is the engine which drives student learning

John Cowan2

A student undertaking any form of study will be subject to assessment in one form or another.
Similarly, any member of teaching staff will be engage at some point in assessment related work.
For some of you, assessment takes up a considerable proportion of your workload, and for students
it can be a significant determinant of what, when and how they learn. Getting assessment 'right' is
therefore essential, both for your students and for you.

'Good' assessment benefits

student learning... and staff
Well-designed assessment can encourage active
learning especially when the assessment
delivery is innovative and engaging. Peer and
self-assessment, for instance, can foster a
number of skills, such as reflection, critical
thinking and self-awareness – as well as giving
students insight into the assessment process.
Discussing the ways in which you're assessing
with your students can also help to ensure that the aims and goals of your assessments are clear.

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Utilising assessment that makes use of technology, such as the use of online discussion forums or
electronic submission of work, can teach students (and perhaps your colleagues) new skills. If you
design your assessments well they can also help to deter plagiarism  by reducing the ways in
which students can gather and report information. At the end of the day, taking some time to think
about why, what and how you're going to assess your students is a worthwhile investment of time.
It can help ensure you're assessing the skills and knowledge that you intended and it could open up
new possibilities for different ways to assess your students, some of which may be more efficient
and effective than the current methods you're using.

References
1. Race, P. Brown, S. and Smith, B. (2005) 500 Tips on assessment: 2nd edition, London:
Routledge.
2. Cowan, J. (2005) In: Designing assessment to enhance student learning.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/ps/documents/practice_guides/practice_guides/
ps0069_designing_assessment_to_improve_physical_sciences_learning_march_2009.pdf [7th
February 2012].

Resources
The following resources from Phil Race are a good starting point in thinking about the importance
of assessment:

Why fix assessment? A discussion paper

A compendium of extracts on assessment  

Things to do now

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Contact us

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Telephone:
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See also

Engage in Feedback
Centre for Quality
Support and
Development
Higher Education
Academy
 

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