Assessment

Assessment is core to student learning. Its development is embedded within the University's Learning and Teaching sub-strategy. There are a number of areas of focus which include:

• Student feedback
• Peer assessment
• Inclusive assessment
• E-assessment
• Streamlining assessment - notes from Learning and Teaching seminar, June 2006 - George Brown, University of Nottingham

Student feedback

Feedback, as an important component of the learning process, needs to be timely to ensure that the benefit to students is maximised. Feedback can be used in a variety of ways but its prime purpose is to support students in reflecting on their progress and help them to enhance their future work. There are a variety of formats which can be used.

The perception of feedback by students is also important. Students may be receiving feedback but may not always gain the most from it. 'Which types of feedback do students actually read carefully, think about and act upon?' (see Brown et al 2003).

'Feedback can be a waste of time'by Professor Steve Swinthenby, on Challenging Perspectives on Assessment website.

Resources on student feedback

There are a range of resources to support the student feedback process:

• FDTL 5 Project Engaging Students with Assessment Feedback: What Works?, Oxford Brookes University
• Effective Feedback to Students - Centre for Bioscience conference held 2006
• Assess your feedback: a self evaluation of feedback
• Enhancing guidance and feedback to students, Hounsell et al. 2005
• Effective feedback to students London Knowledge Lab 2006 (Bioscience)

Peer assessment

Peer and Self assessment is a growing area in assessment practice. Peer assessment can provide students with a greater understanding of the assessment process and support their development as independent learner. Stephen Bostock provides a useful overview of peer assessment. Self assessment is another method and one which can prove valuable to the learner. Burgess, H. provides a range of materials on Self assessment adapted from the 'Self Assessment in Professional and Higher Education Project (SAPHE) Project'. There are some subject-based resources available. One of these is Self- and peer-pssessment: Guidance on practice in the Biosciences.

Inclusive assessment

Making assessment inclusive can have benefits for all students. One project which has been looking at this is the Triple 'A' Project - Achieving Accessible Assessment. One of their deliverables is a publication entitled, 'Inclusive by Design: Assessing Disabled Students in Higher Education', 2006 Nottingham Trent University.  (A copy has just been received by the department - please contact us if you would like to borrow it.) This project recognised the need for subject-specific resources.

Other work has been conducted in this area:

• Doyle, Carole and Robson, Karen (2002) Accessible Curricula - Good Practice for All, UWIC Press. PDF copies can be obtained at hwww.jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/resources/detail/investinyou/Accessible_Curricula
• A very useful resource is the Accessible assessments website, Sheffield Hallam University, which provides a set of key questions for staff to address when setting assessments.
• Simpson, Dawn (2002) Making reasonable adjustments for disabled students in Higher Education, (Ed. Margaret Herrington), University of Nottingham.

E-assessment

E-assessment is a developing mode of assessment. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has provided much detail on this topic area which includes an overview of its activities and an e-assessment glossary and details of effective practice in e-assessment.

TechDis also provide clear guidance and support on e-assessment. They have developed a staff development pack which looks at accessibility in the context of e-assessment.