About

How to use this resource

This resource aims to support SHS lecturers who are implementing Assessment for Learning.  You will find a range of options designed to integrate with your module content and methods of teaching, learning and assessment. They are presented in the form of short case studies from colleagues who use them in their teaching.

You can either explore the resources by type (paper-based, online, face-to-face, clinical and peer) and activities (e.g. OSCE, Moodle forum, group work, etc.) or search for a specific activity using the search box or category drop-down list.

Do you have a resource to share? Want to provide feedback on this website?

We are keen on sharing more examples of formative assessment and feedback in practice. If you have a resource or would like help with producing one to share here or know of a colleague who may, please let us know by using our contact form.

You can also use it to provide your feedback on the site and its content.

Background

At City, University of London, and across the sector, a key concern is to help students progress on their programmes of study. One method to improve academic and clinical success and reduce attrition is formative assessment with high quality feedback, enabling students to learn from and improve their work.  

Formative assessment is defined as: 

Assessment with a developmental purpose, designed to help learners learn more effectively by giving them feedback on their performance and how it can be improved and/or maintained.” (QAA, 2018, page 1) 

The School of Health Sciences aims to support students to progress and succeed by ensuring that every assessment has at least one element of formative assessment and feedback. There are many different ways to incorporate formative assessment into a module, providing students with an opportunity to reflect on their work to date and feedforward into their summative assessments.

The QAA (2018) suggests a number of ways to provide formative feedback including informal and formal methods. They highlight that ‘the use of formative assessment at an early stage of the module can provide an indication of how well students are engaging and enable early identification of who may need additional support’ (page 7). They also recommend ‘mutually constructed feedback’ as a way to assist students’ understanding of the feedback, to allow them to develop their skills and improve results (QAA, page 8).  

Research suggests that feedback should help students to develop skills for future assignments (Winstone et al, 2017). In the case of formative feedback, it is helpful to give clear advice on how they can improve in the current assignment, as well as develop future skills. Feedback provision to students should be part of the learning process, allowing students to use suggestions to feed forward into their assignments, develop skills and make improvements. Students also respond and action feedback when there is a positive tone and feedback is provided in clear language, rather than academic language (Winstone et al, 2017). Limited information is available about grading and review of feedback, in relation to formative feedback grading is not a key component, whereas quality feedback is (Winstone et al, 2017).  

This resource is provided to help you to consider different options to suit your module content and methods of teaching, learning and assessment.  

References: 

QAA (2018) ‘UK Quality Code for Higher Education. Advice and guidance: Assessment’. Quality Assurance Agency. Available at: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/quality-code/advice-and-guidance/assessment (Accessed 26 February 2019) 

Winstone, N.E., Nash, R.A., Parker, M. & Rowntree, J. 2017, “Supporting Learners’ Agentic Engagement With Feedback: A Systematic Review and a Taxonomy of Recipience Processes”, Educational Psychologist, 52 (1), pp. 17-37. 

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