Foundation Skills/The assessment cycle/The assessment process

The assessment process
Assessment is not simply a matter of scribbling down a few questions, giving these to students to answer and then marking their work! It is much more than this, and although it is time-consuming (and boring at times!) we must remember that assessments (and the results of assessment) affect your students' future, so we need to take it seriously and get it right!

I like to think of assessment as a cyclical process, starting with the teacher being familiar with the graduate profile as outlined in a programme curriculum document.

How familiar are you with the graduate profile for the programme/s in which you teach? If you're unable to recall any attributes in the graduate profile, perhaps it is a good idea to locate and read through it very soon!

Working through the Assessment Cycle, I find it useful to ask a number of questions related to each step:


 * Graduate Profile: How do your assessment tasks contribute towards developing the graduate attributes of your students?
 * Module/Course Descriptor: Does your course descriptor include clear learning outcomes, together with an overview of the content and assessment for your course?
 * Learning Outcomes: Do your assessment tasks align with the broad learning outcomes in the course descriptor?
 * Plan and develop assessment: Do your assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate their competence in relation to the learning outcomes? You may want to map out your assessment tasks against the learning outcomes (and maybe even the graduate profile).
 * Pre-moderation: Are your assessment tasks moderated by a peer before being administered to students? How formal is this process and who monitors it?
 * Administer the assessment: Are your assesment tasks fair, clear, transparent, valid, reliable, manageable, authentic? In addition, how are you held accountable?
 * Post-moderation': Are your assessment tasks and student evidence moderated by a peer (or external person/body) after being administered to students? How formal is this process and who monitors it?
 * Feedback: Do you provide sufficient and timely feedback to students about their progress? Is the feedback meaningful and does it help students to do better?
 * Reflective practice: Do you review your assessment tasks, your marking schedules, moderators' reports and student experience of the assessment tasks with a view to making positive changes to future assessment tasks or practices?