Educational assessment design workshop to higher education academics, University of Cape Town. Part three of a workshop to new academics.

1. Assessment in
Higher
Education
Follow-up to January 2016
NAPP workshop

2. Assessment grading
› What I wish I had told students about how
I was going to grade / mark their work
› What I wish colleagues had told me
about what I should tell students about
how their work is going to be graded /
marked

3. Rubrics/templates/schemes/
memoranda/guidelines
For discussion:
What is a rubric?
How did I ‘learn’ to mark/grade student
work in my discipline?
How do I use rubrics in my assessment work?

4. Rubrics/templates/schemes/
memoranda/guidelines
For discussion and reflection:
What are the advantages and limitations of
using assessment rubrics?

5. Rubrics/templates/schemes/
memoranda/guidelines
› Advantages:
› Enable one to think about what one is
trying to assess and at what level/s
› Allow for thinking about what is
‘measurable’ and how it might be
measured
› Allow for standardisation of assessment
› Create conditions under which assessment
can be replicated
› Create framework for feedback to students

6. Rubrics/templates/schemes/
memoranda/guidelines
› Advantages (continued):
— Allow other academics access to the
assessment
― A modified rubric can give students an
insight into how to prepare for the
assessment (caveat)
— Can enable an opportunity to evaluate
the relative importance of a
topic/theme/concept/aspect
— Allow external examiners a chance to
verify the judgment

7. Rubrics/templates/schemes/
memoranda/guidelines
› Limitations
› May block creative/original responses not
cued in the guideline
› Could ‘blind’ the assessor to an
unexpected response
› May assume that learning is tangible/
‘measurable’/visible – how does one
measure the more intangible or abstract or
complex?
› May trivialise the learning / create dogma

8. Rubrics/templates/schemes/
memoranda/guidelines
› Limitations (continued):
› May assume that an interpretive act of
judgment is uniformly understood or
amenable to other assessors – there is
uniform/universal understanding of what a
‘good’ answer is; how a problem is solved;
that what is tacit can be made explicit
› Potentially encourage students to ‘find the
right answer’

9. Some useful resources
Angelo, T. & Cross, P. (1993). Classroom
Assessment Techniques: a Handbook for
College Teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-
Bass
Downing, S.M. & Haladyna, T.M. (Eds) (2006).
Handbook of Test Development. New
Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum

10. Some useful resources
Freeman, R. & Lewis, R. (1998). Planning and
Implementing Assessment. London: Kogan Page
Gibbs, G. (2010). Using Assessment to Support
Student Learning. Leeds: Leeds Met Press
Nitko, A.J. (2001). Educational Assessment of
Students. New Jersey: Merrill