Workshop on formal assessment presented at Cape Peninsula University of Technology academic developers

1. Formal online
examinations
Assessment design principles and practices
Alan Cliff (alan.cliff@uct.ac.za)

2. Why do we do formal examinations?
 Understanding the macro, meso and micro contextual factors and their
influence
 We do examinations because it’s a formal requirement?
 We believe these examinations to be the most efficient; secure; ‘trusted’
form of assessment
 Frequently, these are ‘handed-down’ – seldom thought-through
practices/traditions
 So, thank you for the opportunity to reflect on these in terms of principle and
practice
 (Possibility of formal examinations being disrupted)

3. Why do we assess?
 To check how much/what students know
 To grade performance; certificate
 To assess our teaching
 To facilitate learning
 To differentiate/separate/classify
students
 To promote/model thinking
 To reflect on our purposes/aims/goals
(Newton 2007)

4. Implications for assessment
 Assessing for knowledge acquisition: what knowledge is
valued and why?
 Assessing for application of
knowledge/procedure/process: what is meant by
application?
 Assessing for understanding: what is “understanding”?
 Assessing for transformation/critical thinking/independent
thought: meaning?

5. The language of formal examinations
 What phrases and action words relate to the kinds of
questions we ask?
 Do we know what we mean by standard phrases?
 Do students know what these mean and how they should
respond?

6. Recall Applica-
tion
Under-
standing
Transfor
mation/
re-
working
Review/
critique/
evalu-
ation
Content
Concept
Process
Argu-
ment
Applica-
tion
Theory
Compa-
rison
Scenario
Other

7. Assessment: design questions
 What do we want to assess?
 How do the assessment activities align with course
objectives/content/learning?
 What ‘signals’ do assessments provide about the course
and to students (values/learning)?
 What form/s of assessment (e.g. selected response; case-
study; essay) best suit what we are assessing?

8. Assessment: design questions
 How will students know how and what to
prepare for?
 What will a ‘model’ answer to an
assessment look like and how will we
know?
 How will the assessment be assessed and
who will mark it?
 How and in what form will feedback be
given?
 How will one assessment ‘fit’ with
another?

9. Issues of validity
 Traditional conceptions of validity: do
tests measure what they are intended to
measure?
 BUT: how do we know anyway?
 Assessment (like most educational
activity) is a socially constructed,
contextualised, interpretive act (cf.
Gipps, 1999)
 What else is being assessed: test-taking
‘literacy’; time-pressure; language
 Collection of validity evidence (Messick,
1994)

10. Impacts on validity
 What we are assessing
 The degree/programme/course objectives
 How we conceive of the assessment and its outcome
 What we communicate to students
 The conditions under which they do the assessment
 How it is marked and moderated