Assessing assessments

I just finished a project on diversity and started to write a report – the report on assessment. Knowing diversity (as a whole) and understanding its impact on the teaching and learning process was a fantastic exposure. ‘Making sense’ was my finding – making sense of students, student journey, curriculum, stakeholders, outcomes and so on.

How can I include these factors and aspects in one assessment? Perhaps, the more vital question to consider before releasing the assessment brief is – how can I prepare students and mark their assignments using a holistic approach? While doing so, I also need to think about the student learning experience. This is something more to delve into.

Taking these thoughts further, I assessed the assessment processes and their effectiveness in the context of postgraduate students. Staying within my boundaries, I captured the knowledge of learning outcomes, module objectives, assessment briefs and TEF narration (such as continuation, graduate outcomes and student experience).

I found assessing assessments a bit trickier than assessing students. The first one should assess the assessment, whereas the second one should assess students’ understanding of the core knowledge (or skills). Sometimes, I question myself – aren’t they two sides of the same coin?