Assessment and feedback practices are highly interconnected. Assessment tasks need to be designed so that students have opportunities to engage in formative (developmental) and summative (linked to a final grade) tasks, along with feedback that will help them to progress in future.
To support students in this regard, Assistant Professors (Teaching) require an understanding of how assessment and feedback are integral to learning, and how they can be made relevant, practical, and appropriate for all students. You may be involved in academic misconduct processes, and thus it is vital you develop awareness of related quality assurance and academic integrity procedures.
Feedback and assessment are often sources of high emotion and anxiety for students; inclusive and thoughtful assessment and feedback practices can help support student learning and enable them to pass first time, on time.
Essential Background
- Activities of particular relevance to the Assistant Professor (Teaching) role include:
- Marking and giving feedback including submission and upload of student marks within Aula, and in accordance with the stipulated turnaround periods.
- Designing assessments, in line with the undergraduate Curriculum Transformation Project design principles, if appropriate to your course.
- Leadership of marking teams.
- Presenting data at meetings and committees, including academic misconduct committees.
- Leading moderation and quality assurance of appropriate module assessment (see Policy on the internal moderation of assessments).
- Reviewing assessment and feedback processes.
- The Assessment and feedback section of the Academic Enhancement and Professional Development (AEPD) website include a wealth of resources on this topic, all of which are worth browsing.
- As part of the University Group Assessment Regulations learning and assessment credits are separated which allows for a more innovative approach to assessment. Core Component Assessment (CCA) allows for assessment on a pass/fail basis, and Applied Core Assessment (ACA) tasks are graded. . See the introduction here for more details and support.
- Get to know Inspera, the institution’s computer based assessment platform. The collection of Inspera articles on the Teaching Knowledge Base provide support and guidance. Regular workshops are available on using Inspera; register via the course booking system.
Getting Started
- Ensure you understand the difference between core and applied core assessments if they are used in your course. You may find this FAQ helpful.
- The University is committed to practices that enable students to Pass First Time, on Time. Review the guidance here, particularly the practices and examples. Could you apply any of the ideas to your own teaching?
- Academic misconduct is unfortunately a major issue for the Higher Education sector. Take a look at this resource on Plagiarism and Contract Cheating and this resource on Artificial Intelligence and Academic misconduct to get a feel for some of the key concerns and debates.
- Review the Curriculum Transformation Project design principles for undergraduate assessment, in particular the standardised assessment briefs or see the video below. If your school does not fall under CTP. review any local assessment guidance.
Take it Further
- Several of AEPD’s workshops focus on assessment and feedback practice including Pass First Time and assessment literacy. You can look for upcoming dates, and sign up, via the course booking system.
- Contact details for Academic Conduct Officers, who investigate instances of suspected academic misconduct, can be found on the Academic Integrity Unit page.
- Be aware of the implications of AI for assessment. This is a vast and complex topic, but the materials collated in AI in Learning, Teaching and Assessment at Coventry University Group are a good place to start when considering how AI may impact on your assessment practice.
- Watch Faye Mitchell from the School of Computing, Mathematics and Data Science discuss how she uses AI to boost student’s assessment literacy (12:36).
Try it Out!
- Talk to your colleagues or module teams regarding any concerns they have around academic misconduct. How could you address this in you learning design or assessment practices? What support do you need?
- Think about feedback that you have given, or feedback you have received. How did students use their feedback? How did feedback you received affect your learning?
- What opportunities do students have for formative assessment in your modules? How can you help students use this feedback to improve their learning?
Finished here?