Assessment: Learning's Destination or Journey?

Intended Audience:

This session is for all teaching staff who have an interest in designing better assessment items.

Workshop Description:

Assessment is, indeed has always been, a practice that is central to all teaching institutions. It happens, often, so instinctively that little thought goes into whether it is as good as it could be

Questions like the following are often not examined:

What is the difference between an exceptionally good piece of assessment and a poor piece of assessment?
Over and above testing what students have learnt and retained, what should assessment offer the students?
How often and in what form should assessment take place?
What is the relationship between feedback and assessment?
When and how often should formative and summative assessment be utilised?
What role does well designed assessment have in minimising the potential for plagiarism?

These and other crucial elements of good assessment will be examined in this workshop. For purposes of critiquing (for better or worse) actual assessment items, participants are encouraged to bring exemplars, together with the outline of the unit to which is belongs.

Intended Outcomes:

At the end of the session, you will:

Have a better understanding of the value of a well designed piece of assessment;
Be able to ensure that the assessment process offers a learning opportunity for students;
Be able to design assessment items that reduce the potential for academic misconduct (plagiarism and collusion).

Key Activities:

Group and paired discussions
Examination of exemplars

Duration:

3 hours

Date and Time:

Wednesday 01 July 2009, 9:00am - 12noon
Wednesday 23 September 2009, 1:30pm - 4:30pm

Venue:

Seminar Room 1, Love House, 28 Broadway, Crawley (Cnr of Cooper Street)

Facilitator:

Dr Lee Partridge, Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, UWA