The videos and support resources shared in this space have been prepared by the University of Auckland Business School’s Innovative Learning and Teaching team (ILT). They are designed to provide initial and just-in-time support for Business School staff in their preparation for implementing the University’s new Assessment 2020 policy. The resources link directly to an extended series of live forums offered in August and September 2019 where staff are being encouraged to ask questions and exchange ideas, strategies, and practical tips.
Are you ready?
The University has produced a new assessment policy that is to be implemented from summer school 2020. The changes to the policy are:
- Evolutionary rather than revolutionary
- Built on previous iterations of assessment policies
- Aimed at developing holistic assessment that is transparent, consistent, and fair
This video is the first in a series of five short videos around the assessment policy and explores the new policy’s purpose and rationale. Along with it, you will find the Assessment 2020 Checklist. Engaging with the checklist will give you a good idea of how policy-ready you are and what might still need some attention.
The principles that underpin this new policy are hugely positive, especially when considered from the perspective of our students. This policy encourages us all to reflect carefully on the coherence of our learning and assessment journeys within individual courses and across majors and programmes.
Designing and aligning assessments
This instalment of the Assessment 2020 video series looks at designing assessments and aligning them with course-level learning outcomes and graduate profile capabilities.
If you need some inspiration for designing your assessments and/or are unsure how to align them with course learning outcomes and graduate capabilities, have a look at these practical and time-saving resources:
- How to design and align an assessment
- A grid for effective alignment: Based on Bloom’s taxonomy
- Holistic rubrics: To help with pitching assessment at an appropriate level of rigour
Assessments that are well designed and clearly aligned to course-level learning outcomes and graduate profile capabilities help students to appreciate the learning journey they are on within your course. They also help us to communicate with each other about the overall learning journey our students are on across our majors and programmes.
Writing effective assessment descriptions
In this episode of the Assessment 2020 video series, the focus lies on writing individual assessments and the instructions that go with them.
For your reference, please have a look at these resources:
Aligning assessments to the course content, learning outcomes, and graduate capabilities as described in the course outline benefits students by making them understand what they need to do, why they’re doing it and how it is going to be marked.
Developing and using rubrics
This part of the Assessment 2020 video series delves into criterion-referenced assessment. Rubrics or marking guides are two popular tools used for this purpose. The following resources will guide you through:
- What, when, and why use rubrics
- How to design or adapt an analytic rubric
- A checklist for an analytic rubric
Helping students to engage with rubrics
This final episode of the Assessment 2020 video series examines how students utilise rubrics and how they can be used as learning and feedback tools to engage students.
Useful files
- Checklist for the new assessment policy
- How to design and align an assessment
- A grid for effective alignment
- Holistic rubrics
- Checklist for an assessment description
- An example of an assessment description
- What, when, and why use rubrics
- How to design or adapt an analytic rubric
- A checklist for an analytic rubric
- Ideas for engaging students with rubrics as learning and feedback tools.
