Activity 3: Principles of assessment
In a 2002 project funded by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC), The Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) at The University of Melbourne produced some very good ideas and resources for use by University staff. As a way of familiarising yourself with what is available, carry out the following activities.
- Go to Assessing Learning and spend 2-3 minutes browsing the site to get a sense of the breadth of ideas and resources available there.
- Click on Tips for new staff (in the menu at the top of the page). First, read and reflect on the list of twelve principles. Then click on each one in turn or scroll down the page for further discussion about each principle.
- Click on Core principles and re-read the 16 indicators of effective assessment (handouts at the Introduction to Tertiary Teaching session) and the three paragraphs on What students value in assessment. It would be useful to bookmark this website for future reference. You might also like to download and print the 62-page booklet for your resource library. The content in the booklet is all online, along with some extra resource material such as PowerPoint presentations.
- Now read the following excerpt from Ramsden (2003, p. 204).
You'll note that many of the 'rules' relate to the design of assessment, while others relate to the way it is practised. Identify which of the rules are applicable to your level of responsibility, and decide on two things you could do during the current semester that you believe will be beneficial to your students' learning.
For further reading on the nature and principles of assessment, Chapters 9 (Assessing for learning quality 1: Principles) and 10 (Assessing for learning quality11: Practice) from the following book are recommended.
Biggs, J. (2003). Teaching for quality learning at university: What the student does. (2nd edition) Berkshire: Open University Press.
This book is available in the Deakin library; Call number: 378.125 Big/Tfq.
