Fitness for Purpose in the Assessment of Learning: students as stakeholders

McDowell, Liz; Sambell, Kay

doi:10.1080/1353832990050202

Cited by 33 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Our approach to AfL is based both on an awareness of the varying conceptualisations and our empirical research into the student experience of assessment over a number of years (McDowell and Sambell 1999;Sambell and McDowell 1998;Sambell, McDowell, and Brown 1997). This research identified aspects of assessment that can support learning and should therefore be part of any comprehensive AfL model.…”

Section: Assessment For Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does assessment for learning make a difference? The development of a questionnaire to explore the student response

McDowell

Wakelin

Montgomery

et al. 2011

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education

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Assessment for learning is a widely used term and the concept forms the basis of many teaching innovations in higher education. However, the definitions and scope of assessment for learning vary considerably. We describe a conceptualisation of assessment for learning that encompasses current thinking in a holistic way and which has been trialled and extensively refined in practice. A student questionnaire is presented which has enabled us to explore the student experience. Results indicate that the overall student experience is more positive in modules where assessment for learning approaches are used and students are more likely to take a deep approach to learning. It also demonstrates that the student experience is centred on staff support and module design, feedback, active engagement and peer learning. The full questionnaire is made available and its wider use in evaluation, enhancement and research is encouraged.

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Section: Assessment For Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does assessment for learning make a difference? The development of a questionnaire to explore the student response

McDowell

Wakelin

Montgomery

et al. 2011

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The latter group appears to have the main goal to achieve a pass mark, whereas the other group of 'active' students seems to be keen to learn from feedback in essence to feed-forward to the next module. McDowell and Sambell (1999) echo this idea when they refer to Entwistle's (1998) concept of extrinsic or intrinsically motivated students. Weaver (2006) cites Wojtas (1998) who laments that students are 'only interested in the mark', but Higgins et al (2002) identify a tension between being 'grade-sensitive' and being motivated by desire of achieving deep learning.…”

Section: Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment feedback only on demand: Supporting the few not supplying the many

Jones

Gorra

2013

Active Learning in Higher Education

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There are many pressures on academics to 'satisfy' students' needs for feedback, not least the inclusion of questions about feedback in the National Student Survey. Many authors have commentated on the lack of student engagement with summative feedback while most believe that feedback is necessary to improve individual student performance.Several authors have looked at a range of reasons why students do not collect their feedback but this paper investigates how many students collected summative feedback and why they did so. This paper outlines an action research based intervention which involved offering feedback 'on demand' to undergraduate students and utilises access statistics data from the Virtual Learning Environment to identify the actual rate of feedback collection by students. We found a discernible preference for seeking feedback where the difference between the expected grade and the actual grade was greater. A student survey and the VLE access data both indicated that students were satisfied with a few short comments and a marking grid, if the mark was similar to their expectations.We argue that it is not resource efficient or effective for academic staff to provide detailed individual feedback to all students. Students should be offered a hierarchy of feedback on demand which would allow some of the effort to be reallocated from summative feedback to formative assessment and feedback.

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“…Further, McDowell and Sambell (1999) have found that students are very critical of conventional examinations that tend to test memory or poor learning and which are inappropriate means of assessing authentic knowledge and capabilities. Students do not want to invest their time and energies in activities that they consider to be meaningless.…”

Section: Assessment As a Tool For Managing Students' Experiencementioning

confidence: 97%

“…One of the means of securing quality in students' learning experience is ensuring that there are links between objectives, assessment and outcomes that are clear and justifiable (McDowell & Sambell, 1999). The fitness for purpose of assessment is determined by the capacity of the method employed to assess what it is intended to assess, or in other words by the capacity of the method to assess the purposes defined by the curriculum.…”

Section: Assessment As a Tool For Managing Students' Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Quality Assurance and the Imperatives for Improved Student Experiences in Higher Education: The Case of the University of the West Indies

Gift

Bell‐Hutchinson

2007

Quality in Higher Education

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This paper critically examines the outcomes of quality assurance programme reviews on the three campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI) with an emphasis on the factors that impact upon the quality of students' learning experiences. In establishing the context of the discussion, the authors describe the quality assurance system of the UWI and discuss specific issues such as pedagogic pluralism; assessment; collaboration and stakeholder involvement and resources considered to be imperatives for improving students' experiences in higher education. Strategies that the UWI is in the process of implementing to address these issues are highlighted. The authors have found that the academic staff of the UWI are increasingly implementing the recommendations of review teams and that this is, in part, facilitated by the university's monitoring mechanism. Actions taken to respond to these recommendations are contributing to the enhancement of teaching and learning but sustainability of this is dependent upon the success of the measures to be taken to address the critical issue of resources.• Consultations with quality assurance officers.• A self-assessment exercise.• The visit of a review team appointed by OBUS.• Submission of the review team's report.• Follow-up of the recommendations by the departments/units.

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Fitness for Purpose in the Assessment of Learning: students as stakeholders

Cited by 33 publications

References 18 publications

Does assessment for learning make a difference? The development of a questionnaire to explore the student response

Does assessment for learning make a difference? The development of a questionnaire to explore the student response

Assessment feedback only on demand: Supporting the few not supplying the many

Quality Assurance and the Imperatives for Improved Student Experiences in Higher Education: The Case of the University of the West Indies

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