How to design and formalize students' assessment

In  ENhANCE project a number of tools have been delivered in order to support  the design of students’ assessment.

Firstly, the ASSESSMENT TABLE provided aside the Curriculum defines the main assessment methods suggested for each LO.

Then, when localizing the Curriculum, the Assessment Scaffolding sheet of the FLEXIBILITY TOOL allows you to define the distribution of such methods among Modules and related LOs.  

Finally,  the COURSE SYLLABUS allows you to describe the Assessment Tools you would like to adopt for each teaching.

Then, other 2 important tools are provided supporting both the formalization and the tracking of students assessment, i.e. the ASSESSMENT APPROACH table and the ASSESSMENT MATRIX.

assessment

N.B: Check the coherence of the information you stated in each of these design tools!

The Assessment Approach

In order to be able to recognize and validate competences in the framework of ECVET, students’ assessment should be “learning-outcome oriented” and thus we should be able to assess if a student has achieved EACH LEARNING OUTCOME.

In complex curricula such the one for FCN, assessing students LO by LO could require a very big effort and this task may not fit with the needs and rules of the VET provider.

To this end, ENhANCE project identified 3 main ASSESSMENT APPROACHES in order to describe how to manage the assessment of LOs in each test/assignment/assessment tool:

ASSESSMENT APPROACH 1: the teacher has to specify if the WHOLE EXAM/TEST is PASSED or FAILED; if the exam is PASSED, each LO assessed through that exam/test has to be considered as PASSED

ASSESSMENT APPROACH 2: the teacher has to specify if EACH LEARNING OUTCOME is PASSED or FAILED.

ASSESSMENT APPROACH 3: the teacher has to specify if EACH LEARNING OUTCOME is PASSED or FAILED; in the event that a LO is PASSED, the teacher has to specify the specific level (eg. satisfactory, good, excellent).

A specific tool, the ASSESSMENT APPROACH TABLE allows you to formalize which approach you would like to adopt for each test/assignment/assessment tool you would like to adopt in your course.

Designers, with the support of teachers, are expected to list (for each method selected in the Localized Curriculum) the assessment tools they are going to use and choose an assessment approach.

approach

A specific GUIDE (see Assessment Guide) has been delivered by the project in order to select the PROPER ASSESSMENT TOOL. 

Relying on ENhANCE project experience, experts generally suggest to adopt APPROACH 1 in order to limit the effort that have to be spent to assess all of the LOs for each student.


The Assessment Matrix

Another important tool is the ASSESSMENT MATRIX. This tool can be used only when ASSESSMENT APPROACH 1 is adopted for the whole course or for specific modules.

The aim of the ASSESSMENT MATRIX is dual:

  • to support designers and teachers in the formalization (and thus the sharing) of the main design choices about students assessment;
  • to support the monitoring of the assessment process throughout the course implementation. 

The template consists of an Excel file made up of 4 main sheets. 

SHEET 1 – ASSESSMENT APPROACH

This sheet should mirror what has been defined in the ASSESSMENT APPROACH table. It is just to have “at your fingertips” what is stated in the other tool. This table admit only value “1” as to the assessment approach.

SHEET 2 – ASSESSMENT MATRIX

It relies on the information already included in the Localized Curriculum and, in particular, in the “Assessment Scaffolding” sheet of the Flexibility Tool, which is supposed to be copied and pasted here; in that sheet, you should have already specified for each LO of a module the Assessment Method you are going to adopt.

matrix1

matrix 2

In the place of the “X” included in the Assessment Scaffolding sheet you have to specify the name of the ASSESSMENT TOOL you’re going to use to assess the specific LO, drawn from the list you provided in the ASSESSMENT APPROACH SHEET.

Then you only have to add the information about the TEACHING targeting the LO, which is already included in your COURSE SYLLABUS.

The assessment of Work Based Learning is managed in a table apart.

matrix 3

SHEET 3 – STUDENTS LIST

This sheet is a “placeholder” for the list of your students, which will support the assessment monitoring. Then, based on the template created in SHEET 4 – S1, you have to create A SHEET FOR EACH STUDENT.

SHEET 4 – S1

This sheet is a template you have to customize based on the tools you decided to adopt. Once customized the template you should create as many sheets like this as many students are attending your course.

 

HINTS1
  • CHECK THE GUIDE FOR ASSESSMENT in order to select the proper ASSESSMENT TOOLS
  • DOWNLOAD the ASSESSMENT APPROACH TABLE and fill it in
  • if you choose ASSESSMENT APPROACH 1, DOWNLOAD the ASSESSMENT MATRIX and fill it in
  • CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE IN A PDF DOCUMENT
Viimeksi muutettu: perjantai 30. huhtikuu 2021, 17.25