Frequently asked questions
Who is this website designed for?
Anyone who wants to change their assessment practices in higher education. It is for educators who want some inspiration for shifting emphasis away from certification and towards building students’ capacity for learning over time.
I’ve got some ideas, how can I contribute?
You can provide us with some comments by and examples by sending us an email.
Why aren't there links illustrating every strategy?
The website is still being developed and more examples will be added. However, simple examples are not always available to illustrate every idea. Sometimes they are part of a complicated wider strategy, and sometimes they are so commonplace it is difficult to find a documented example to link to.
Why aren't there more examples from different disciplines?
We have limited resources and we prefer to link to other sites or to examples in books or journals. We have tried to write the discussion of ideas in a way that is inclusive of disciplines.
Where is the discussion of how to allocate grades?
This is a specialised site about assessment for long-term learning; it is not a multi-purpose site about assessment. It is important to make sure assessment for long term learning is central before moving on to consideration of grading. Grading is given lots of attention elsewhere. There are many other issues about assessment that are not discussed here!
These are interesting ideas, but I can’t see how I might use them for assessment at my university?
They are not designed to replace existing assessment for certifying students, but rather to complement it and to suggest ways in which assessment might be modified. The culture and tradition of your university department or program could be getting in the way. Most universities use at least some of the examples discussed here. University policy rarely inhibits changing assessment (even when we believe it does). Rather it is the predominance of local conventions. These can be modified with careful planning!
There are too many ideas to use, and I don’t agree with some of them, what can I do?
The site is designed for browsing and to stimulate you to develop ideas to use in your own course(s). They are not all suitable for any given course, discipline or institution. This website is a success when someone picks up a few ideas and can adapt and use them.
I believe the most important part of assessment is grading students, so why is there so little about this here?
Unless what we do contributes first to student learning and to helping them become effective assessors of their own work and that of others, there is nothing worthwhile to assess. There are some suggestions about grading (see grading and exams), but it is not the site focus. There are plenty of other resources out there to help you with that.
