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Academic integrity
This involves adherence to regulations, policies and codes of practice promulgated by The University, and professional bodies, and the avoidance, individually or in collusion, of cheating, fraud, impersonation, or plagiarism. (Note: The University has a definition of Plagiarism - "the unacknowledged use, as one's own, of work of another person, whether or not such work has been published").
Active Learning
Active learning is a general term that describes the type of learning activities which allows learners to be responsible for their own learning. It has been suggested that activity-based experiences tend to engage learners and help them understand and recall learning faster.
Affective assessment
Affective assessment is generally concerned with describing how people feel, including qualities such as values, motivations, interests, attitudes, confidence, and anxieties, as they are directed to specific targets such as a course, instructor, text, or grade to be earned.
Alternative Assessment
Alternative Assessment (aka as Authentic Assessment, Performance Assessment or Direct Assessment) is the general term that describes the type of assessments that require students to apply their skills and knowledge in a meaningful real life situation.
Analytic Scoring/Assessment/Grading
Analytic Grading is a method of evaluating students’ performance by assessing the different elements of the assessment rather than focusing the overall quality of the assessment as a whole.
Anonymity in assessment
Anonymity in assessment is when the identity of the student is not made known to, or is kept from, those marking/grading performance/achievement in assessment in those circumstances in which this is possible.
Assessment
Assessment in Higher Education is an on-going evaluation documenting process aimed at understanding and improving student learning by measuring the learning outcomes in knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs.
Authentic Assessment
Authentic Assessment (aka as Performance Assessment, Direct Assessment or Alternative Assessment) is the general term that describes the type of assessments that require students to apply their skills and knowledge in a meaningful real life situation.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is a term that refers to a gauge of advancement, such as pre-testing at the beginning of a class/school year and post-testing at the end. Or it can be one-time testing that provides comparison to state standards thus showing a "benchmark" of student abilities.
Biggs' SOLO Taxonomy
Biggs' Solo (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) Taxonomy, is a systematic way of describing how a learner's performance develops from simple to complex levels in their learning. There are 5 stages, namely Pre-structural, Uni-structural, Multi-structural which are in a quantitative phrase and Relational and Extended Abstract which are in a qualitative phrase. (See SOLO Taxonomy)
Blooms' Taxonomy
Blooms' Taxonomy is another systematic way of describing how a learner's performance develops from simple to complex levels in their affective, psychomotor and cognitive domain learning. In their cognitive domain, there are six stages, namely: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. Traditional education tends to base the student learning in this domain. (See Blooms' Taxonomy)
Collaboration in assessment
Working jointly with colleagues in setting assessments, which capture the level and quality of attainment of learning outcomes alongside the agreement of the learning outcomes (for a course, programme, etc.); working jointly with colleagues in the elaboration of grade descriptors; and working jointly with colleagues in the making of judgments and the determination of grades/marks which reflect student achievement/performance in assessment referenced against collaboratively pre-agreed standards.
Constructive Alignment
Constructive Alignment is a learning and teaching principle devised by John B. Biggs. It basically states the intended learning outcomes, the learning activities and the assessment tasks in a programme/course must be properly aligned. Thus the intended learning outcomes (what we want the students to learn) must be supported by the correct use of learning activities (how do we want the students to learn) and the assessment tasks including the languages employed (how do we know they have learnt).
Criteria/Standards
Criteria clarify the link between the stated learning outcomes and the specific assessment task; they can help focus students' efforts in the right direction and provide the basis for them to judge their own progress, and they present a starting point for staff discussion about marking standards. (See Standards)
Criterion-referenced Assessment
A distinguishing property or characteristic of something, by which its quality can be judged or estimated, or by which a decision or classification may be made.
Direct Assessment
Direct Assessment (aka as Authentic Assessment, Performance Assessment or Alternative Assessment) is the general term that describes the type of assessments that require students to apply their skills and knowledge in a meaningful real life situation.
Double (second) marking/grading
Double (second) marking/grading is when student performance is judged by a second marker, either done independently (being unaware of the marks given by the first marker), or done sequentially with the marks suggested by the first marker. Markers may agree on criteria and standards through collaboration beforehand. The first and second markers may agree collaboratively on marks after sampling, or after double marking all assessment submissions/performances etc.
Feedback
Feedback in learning is the process that allows the learners to know whether they are performing on the right track. Feedback may be given individually or collectively in a specific area or in general, orally or in writing, with the aim of enhancing student learning.
Formative Assessment
Formative Assessment is when the student's performance is assessed throughout the learning cycle. Assessment activities which are directed at enhancing, facilitating, supporting, encouraging and motivating learning, aiming to inform students of their progress, achievements and performance, and to provide guidance to them (and to inform teachers about student learning, misunderstandings, areas of deficiency/weakness/difficulties, areas of strength). This has the advantage of providing feedback for both teachers and students for improving instruction and to aid learning. Summative and formative assessment are referred to in a learning context as "assessment of learning" and "assessment for learning" respectively.
Generative Skills
As defined by Equipped for the Future (EFF), generative skills refer to the knowledge and skills adults need in order to successfully and effectively carry out their roles as parents and family members, citizens and community members, and workers. The EFF divides the skills into 4 broad categories: Communication Skills, Decision-Making Skills, Interpersonal Skills, and Lifelong Learning Skills. These categories reflect variability of skills, encouraging adult learners to think about all the skills in a given category as tools they may want to draw on selectively to achieve their purpose more effectively, which varies from situation to situation depending on the task and context.
Grade descriptors
These encapsulate levels of achievement with respect to standards and criteria for students at a given developmental stage.
Grading
Representing student achievement by means of letters (A, B, C etc.), with or without supplementary symbols (+ / -), or descriptions, or numbers assigned to grades.
Group assessment
Group assessment is when the assessment is allocated to group of learners. The difficulty in group learning and assessment often lies in the grading of the assessment
Higher Order Learning Outcomes
Higher Order Learning Outcomes are those learning outcomes which involve deep learning and not the regurgitation of information. Creating, designing, reflecting, comparing, judging, critiquing and relating are all sample verbs of higher order learning outcomes. It can be classified by the top three levels of Bloom's cognitive Taxonomy ' Analyse, Synthesis and Evaluate, or the two qualitative levels of the SOLO taxonomy ' Relational and Extended abstract levels of understanding.
Holistic Scoring/Assessment/Grading
Holistic grading is a method of evaluating students' performance by focusing the overall quality of the work rather than assessing each individual item. It compares student achievement/performance as a whole against expected standards elaborated for overall achievement/performance in making a judgment. For example: Essay assessments are often view as a whole rather than on any one aspect of the writing such as grammars, spellings or others.
Ipsative Assessment
Ipsative Assessment is a self evaluating assessment format in which the assessment performance is measured against yourself, competing your own “personal best” performance over time or over different fields. Example: Athelete
Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes are statement or a set of statements that specify what the learners will know and able to do upon successful completion of a learning cycle. The learning outcomes can be maybe in the affective, psychomotor or/and cognitive domains as specified in Blooms’ Taxonomy.
Manageability
Manageability in assessment relates to whether the assessment is manageable in the perspectives of staff workload and learner resources.
Marking
Marking is a process of representing judgements of student achievement/performance in assessment by means of numbers. Marking is often restricted to assessment items or tasks, but not used so often for overall achievement.
Moderation in assessment
Working jointly with colleagues with the aim of ensuring consistency, parity, the avoidance of individual bias, prejudice or influence, and compliance with The University's regulations and policies, and those of any professional bodies, in both the setting and the grading/marking of assessments.
Norm-referenced Assessment
Norm-referenced Assessment (also known as grading on a curve) is a format for evaluating assessment in which the assessment performance is measured against the norm. The norm can be the average in a class cohort or even the national sample, these students' performances are then ranked accordingly. Norm-referenced assessment does not give an indication of how well the student performs, rather it is a way of comparing students, thus discourages teamwork and encourages competition. Example: IQ test
Objective Assessment
Objective assessment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. Objective question types include true/false answers, multiple choice, multiple-response and matching questions.
Peer Assessment
Peer Assessment is an assessment which allows students to assess each other's performance. It can be extremely valuable in helping students to learn from each other by listening, analyzing and problem solving. It gives students the opportunity to encounter diversity in different ways, critique and judge and ultimately, students learn how to be responsible for their own learning.
Performance-based assessment
Performance Assessment (aka as Authentic Assessment, Direct Assessment or Alternative Assessment) is the general term that describes the type of assessments that require students to apply their skills and knowledge in a meaningful real life situation.
Process-based Assessment
Process-based assessment is the type of assessment which focuses on how the learners’ performance is delivered.
Product-based Assessment
Product-based assessment is the type of assessment which focuses on what end product the learners deliver.
Reliability
Reliability is a measure of how consistent the assessment is. A reliable assessment will produce the same results on re-test with the same or similar populations who have similar knowledge and ability in a similar circumstance. Various factors affect reliability – including ambiguous questions, too many options within a question paper, unclear or no grading criteria particularly for subjective assessment and poorly trained markers.
Rubrics
Heidi Goodrich, a rubrics expert, defines a rubric as “a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or 'what counts.” Generally rubrics specify the level of performance expected for several levels of quality.
Self assessment
Self Assessment is an assessment which allows students to assess their own performance. It can be extremely valuable in helping students to develop self-reflection, critique and judgment and ultimately, students learn how to be responsible for their own learning. Self assessments are usually used as part of a formative assessment process, rather than a summative one.
Standards (Criterion)
Standard is the expected level of quality (set by instructors, professional bodies, schools, colleges, government) in which the assessment will be approved or accredited.
Standards-referenced assessment (standards-based assessment)
A definite level of excellence or attainment, or a definite degree of any quality viewed as a prescribed object of endeavour or as the recognized measure of what is adequate for some purpose, established by authority, custom, or consensus.
Subjective Assessment
Subjective assessment is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer). Subjective questions include extended-response questions and essays.
Summative Assessment
Summative Assessment is when the student's performance is assessed at the end of the learning cycle. Only one accumulated grade is usually given for the entire learning period. They are assessment activities which aim to provide a measure and record of the quality and extent of student achievement or performance. Summative and formative assessments are referred to in a learning context as "assessment of learning" and "assessment for learning" respectively.
Sustainable assessment
'Assessment that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of students to meet their own future learning needs.' (Boud, 2000)
Traditional Assessment
Traditional Assessment is a general term that refers to the conventional type of assessments such as standardized tests, multiple choice questions and essay writings, these assessments tend to be passive learning in nature and encourage the recalling of information.
Validity
Validity is a measure of how the assessment aligns with the intended learning outcomes, that is if it is assessing what it is intended to assess. A valid assessment will give an accurate estimate of the actual skills learned by the student. For example, a driving test which tests only the theory is not a valid test.