This interactive workshop will explore the current climate on Higher Education and the effects on assessment. Participants will be asked to challenge the assumptions of assessment (module v programme level assessment; role of constructive alignment in providing coherent feedback; assessment standards, common view of feedback etc.) and their own views on these. Managing student expectations and effective feedback will be examined in light of what students consider ‘good’ or ‘bad’ feedback to be. Ultimately, the participants will be asked to consider how they can use feedback to enhance assessment as learning.
The learning outcomes are:
Explore the existing assessment climate and the challenges that prevail
Encourage student engagement through a variety of assessment methods
Consider alternative approaches to feedback in order to improve effectiveness of assessment.
8.30 - 9.00: Registration
9.00: Introduction and Welcome
9.15: Challenging the Assumptions of Assessment - Prof Margaret Price, Director of ASKe Pedagogy Research Centre, Price Oxford Brookes University.
12.30: Lunch
1.15: Examination Feedback: Assessing the Outcomes - Dr Louise Naylor, Director for the Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, University of Kent
15.30: Close
Feedback should not be restricted to certain forms of assessment and is unusual in terms of end of term exam feedback. This workshop will explore the experience at University of Kent, where they embarked on a project to review policy and practice in this area, and in collaboration with students, considered the purposes, benefits and challenges surrounding examination feedback (Jonsson, 2012). As part of revising their Assessment and Feedback Policy, staff and student views on examination feedback were gathered and compared with practice elsewhere. What emerged was a very mixed picture across the sector - no consistency with regard to policy or mode of feedback, with varying limitations on programme stage or cohort level and ranging access to scripts (from none to full access). Moreover, a clear disparity emerged between the high requests for, and low uptake of, examination feedback by students who paradoxically, advocated for greater examination preparation opportunities (e.g. revision sessions or mock exams) that could feedforward into improving their performance in a more timely way. In this workshop, participants will be encouraged to share individual experiences with examination feedback and then in groups, explore further the challenges of making any examination feedback process both effective and efficient.
By the end of this session, delegates will be able to:
Appreciate a range of policies and practice regarding examination feedback
Consider approaches to providing examination feedback
Assess the impact on staff workload and student performance
This interactive workshop is aimed at all faculty and staff teaching in Higher Education in addition to those in course management and co-ordination roles.
Register here.