Assessment, aims and learning outcomes

Flinders policy requires that assessment and feedback are linked firmly to aims and learning outcomes. An aim statement gives a broad view of what the topic is intended to do. Learning Outcomes are statements of the attributes and capabilities that a student should have achieved on successful completion of the topic. They provide the reference point for assessing student progress and designing assessment strategies and methods. Learning outcomes are helpful for working out the standards that we will apply when we measure students' achievements using various assessment instruments and processes. Assessment then needs to focus on encouraging learning and measuring progress towards intended learning outcomes. Some guiding principles (Boud, 1998) Assessment should always be judged in terms of its consequences for learning. Assessment must be viewed through the eyes of students. Time on task is important. Avoid communicating to students in code. Assessment should not be distracted by the technicalities of grading. Consequently assessment schemes should maximise the use of assessment tasks that:

involve students in meaningful learning and encourage students to adopt deep approaches to their learning, encourage learning from each other; and provide rich detailed descriptive feedback about progress in relation to intended learning outcomes.

Assessment and learning

As a national project on assessment practice noted: Assessment is a central element in the overall quality of learning and teaching in higher education. Well designed assessment sets clear expectations, establishes a reasonable workload (one that does not push students into rote reproductive approaches to study), and provides opportunities for students to self-monitor, rehearse, practise and receive feedback. Assessment is an integral component of a coherent educational experience. The ideas and strategies in the Assessing Student Learning resources support three interrelated objectives for quality in student assessment in higher education. 1. assessment that guides and encourages effective approaches to learning; 2. assessment that validly and reliably measures expected learning outcomes, in particular the higher-order learning that characterises higher education; and 3. assessment and grading that defines and protects academic standards. ... assessment requirements and the clarity of assessment criteria and standards significantly influence the effectiveness of student learning. Carefully designed assessment contributes directly to the way students approach their study and therefore contributes indirectly, but powerfully, to the quality of their learning. (Excerpt from James, McInnis, & Devlin, 2002).

Boud and Falchikov (2007) argue for the development of schemes of assessment tasks that progressively promote the development of students' abilities to make increasingly sophisticated judgements about their own learning. Such approaches to assessment place assessment as a crucial element in developing students' capacity to learn for the longer term.

Designing Assessment
Assessment affects people's lives. (Boud and Falchikov, 2007) the effects of bad [assessment] practice are far more potent than they are for any aspect of teaching. Students can, with difficulty, escape from the effects of poor teaching, they cannot (by definition if they want to graduate) escape the effects of poor assessment. (Boud, 1995 cited in Boud, 1998, 1) Assessment is a central element in curriculum design: it is the critical link between learning outcomes, content and learning and teaching activities. Students cannot avoid assessment activities and their impact if they want to pass a topic or course. Assessment not only gauges what students have learned, it shapes how many students approach learning. Often assessment is the first thing to be considered by many students in planning their engagement with a topic.

Assessment can serve both summative and formative purposes, that is, making judgements about student learning for certification/communication purposes and helping to prompt and promote further learning.

Purposes of evaluation

Flinders University Assessment Policy and Procedures provide useful guiding principles to help shape thinking and decisions about assessment: Assessment should be used for educative purposes; there should be communication about assessed work between staff and students. Assessment should be interpreted in the widest possible context, embracing such areas as determining initial competencies, providing feedback to students on their progress, improving instructions and awarding of grades. Assessment should be part of a process which encourages the development of critical and creative abilities. Assessment methods should be selected which are appropriate to the [learning outcomes] of the topic, and the reliability of each method should be considered. The full range of assessment methods should be considered and, where appropriate, these may include a component based on pieces of work of a substantial nature, such as a thesis, research project, report, research essay, film, tape, etc. Consideration should be given to permitting students to choose from optional forms of assessment, provided the alternative forms are consistent with the topic aims and are practically and administratively reasonable. The total effort required of students in assessable activities should be commensurate with the unit weighting of the topic. The amount of effort required for each activity should be commensurate with the proportion of marks allocated to that activity (this is not intended, however, to preclude competency testing for which, in some instances, there may be no marks awarded).