Assessment, evaluation and quality assurance: Implications for integrity in reporting academic achievement in higher education

Sadler, D. Royce

doi:10.3402/edui.v3i2.22028

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…That information can be used as feedback to modify the instructional design of a course and thereby improve the overall learning quality. He vehemently states that through better assessment practices, quality assurance in higher education can be ascertained (Sadler, 2005(Sadler, , 2012.…”

Section: Significance and Relevance Of Assessment In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning through Assessment and Feedback Practices: A Critical Review of Engineering Education Settings

Subheesh

Sethy

2020

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

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'Assessment' and 'feedback' are inherently embedded in a course curriculum of engineering education settings. These components are indispensable for the teachinglearning processes. It is observed that engineering faculty members do not require any 'teacher-training' to join the engineering institutions across the globe. Hence, they may not have adequate experience in assessing students' performances and providing feedback to students. Only a few research studies have been carried out on assessment and feedback from the engineering education context. Therefore, this paper attempts to critically analyse the literature pertaining to learning through different types and methods of assessment practices in the engineering education settings. Further, it examines the significance of qualitative feedback in assessment and the principles of good feedback practice. It highlights the implications of assessing student performance and providing feedback from the engineering education perspective. Finally, the paper offers some recommendations on assessment and feedback practices in the engineering education settings.

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Section: Significance and Relevance Of Assessment In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning through Assessment and Feedback Practices: A Critical Review of Engineering Education Settings

Subheesh

Sethy

2020

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

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“…Ultimately, any grading system should reflect overall integrity (Sadler, 2009(Sadler, , 2012. Students and faculty should have a good understanding of what the various letter grades reflect about student achievement and why the cut-off scores have been set at certain points.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From an assessment perspective, grading practices should reflect overall grade integrity (Sadler, 2009(Sadler, , 2012. That is, grading practices should accurately reflect some sort of quality assurance for the student and for others who review a student's transcript regarding the level of student achievement.…”

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confidence: 99%

How Using a Restricted Grading Range Distorts GPAs and Disproportionately Penalizes Low-Performing Students

Wetzler

2019

Front. Educ.

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This study evaluates how combining multiple grading practices and policies designed to promote excellence, differentiate among high-performing students, or prevent grade inflation at an elite institution affects GPA outcomes for low-performing students. The author evaluated archived performance data from 3,274 cadets completing a required course during a 3-year period at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. Common grading practices use a restricted percentage range with a high cutoff value for the D category (67.0-69.9%), and, although used for other grades, USMA policy prohibits the use of plus/minus demarcations for the D grade in GPA calculations. Grade distributions were highly irregular, and, when combined with the lack of plus/minus demarcations for D's in GPA calculations, the restricted D range in the grading scale resulted in disproportionate GPA penalties for low-performing students. These penalties masked other notable performance differences at higher levels. Recommendations include (a) conducting a benchmark study to determine the appropriate cutoff score for the current course and (b) conducting a comprehensive, retrospective review of cadets' academic performance data across different courses and semesters to determine the percentage of cadets affected by the disproportionate penalty before deciding on a future course of action.

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“…This reporting has a direct influence on high-stakes decisions such as student selection, progression and certification (Delandshere, 2001;Dolin et al, 2018). In a typical summative assessment task, feedback is provided solely in the form of a grade, or a pass/fail decision, at the conclusion of a semester (Knight & Trowler, 2000;Sadler, 2012). The risk of over-emphasis on fulfilling the purpose of assessment of learning may result in inadequate support being provided to enhance students' academic development throughout their learning process (Masters, 2013).…”

Section: Assessment Of Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consistency of examiner judgements in medical education: a case study of competency-based assessment

Wong¹

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Higher education institutions globally face decreasing government funding and heightened accountability. There is an increasing demand for them to justify the use of public funding for teaching in universities, and provide information for national and international comparisons of quality. High-stakes summative student assessment data have been, and continue to be, critical for fulfilling both accountability and quality requirements. However, concerns have been raised about the dominance of using summative assessment for multiple purposes beyond certifying student achievement. For example, this dominance marginalises the importance of formative assessment in providing feedback to guide students' future learning. Such concerns have driven assessment reforms. One of these reforms-competency-based assessment (CBA)-is promoted as an alternative to high-stakes examinations, as it may achieve both summative and formative purposes. In the context of medical education, an example of CBA is the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) which has been implemented globally for both summative and formative purposes. The OSCE was originally designed for a small cohort of students (around 100) to undertake highly structured and discrete clinical tasks in a series of timed stations. A major challenge of the OSCE relates to achieving consistency of examiner judgements of student performance as the assessment format relies on multiple examiners. In this PhD study, the OSCE under investigation was a high-stakes exit examination for large cohorts of final-year students (over 350) enrolled in a graduate entry four-year Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program at one Australian research-intensive university. A question arises as to whether examiners in this context can deliver consistent and reliable judgements. This is the issue of concern addressed in this thesis. The overarching purpose of this study was to provide new insights into the consistency of examiner judgements in this high-stakes assessment, and explore the possible impact of structured feedback on changing examiner marking behaviour. The four specific aims were to: develop a deeper understanding of the associated factors that influence examiner judgements of medical students' performance in clinical examinations (OSCEs); evaluate the impacts of providing examiners with structured feedback on their subsequent judgement behaviours; explore the factors that impact on the effectiveness of structured feedback in changing examiner marking behaviour; and, to explore the examiners' proposed training strategies that may assist in increasing the consistency of their judgements in OSCEs. A mixed-methods case study approach was adopted to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data included the examiners' scores awarded to the students in the Year 1 and 2 OSCEs. After completing the OSCE in Year 1, the examiners received a structured Consistency of Examiner Judgements in Medical Education 3 feedback report about their marking behaviour pr...

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Assessment, evaluation and quality assurance: Implications for integrity in reporting academic achievement in higher education

Cited by 10 publications

References 26 publications

Learning through Assessment and Feedback Practices: A Critical Review of Engineering Education Settings

Learning through Assessment and Feedback Practices: A Critical Review of Engineering Education Settings

How Using a Restricted Grading Range Distorts GPAs and Disproportionately Penalizes Low-Performing Students

Consistency of examiner judgements in medical education: a case study of competency-based assessment

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