Assessment: A tool to measure success

The term ‘assessment’ could be new for many, but it is embedded quite well in the education sector. From school to higher education, it is a way of measuring performance. Even though there are a number of different ways of measuring achievement, some are more popular than others. I have gone through many assessments in my life. However, the main was the exam. I can recall the pains and fears of exams.  Those exams used to be quite scary for me – those exams were associated with my life, family and, of course, society.

Financial costs, time spent, and career progression used to be the direct links to my exams. These aspects used to add more pain than anything else. I have heard many stories that led to the suicide cases in some countries. I am not sure that is still the case. The pain of students can be seen in the video called ‘assessment’. The video clip reminds me of my exam experience – how difficult and painful those days were. Even today, when I think about those exams, I do not feel comfortable.

I set assessments for my students based on my experience and following the institutional procedure. I align the assessments to address the expected outcome – core knowledge area and transferrable skills. The institution and available resources also play a vital role in assessing students. The impact of learning in subjects like business and management is broad. Therefore, measuring skills and knowledge by using methods with a narrow spectrum may not be appropriate.

In the days when I delivered enterprise development programmes, I used to measure success by counting the business establishments. Is there anything we can use to measure the success of the programme (success of our teaching and students completing) other than the graduate outcome?

Student completion headcount? Probably not enough.