Sara Reimers, Pam Parker and Irene Ctori
The proposed workshop explores the initial findings of our research project: Student and Staff Experiences of Assessment: What can we learn from the pandemic? We will begin by sharing the findings of three world café events and an analysis of the 2022 NSS literals, which engaged with the experiences of undergraduate and postgraduate students studying at City. They were coded using grounded theory approach. Focussing on the challenges students across City’s programmes report they experience with assessment, we will consider how we might address the following core issues:
• Assessment design: unclear/unavailable assessment briefs and marking criteria, assessment scheduling, relevance and accessibility of assessment mode.
• Formative assessments: lack of access to example papers, minimal or no feedback on formative assessments,
• Marking and feedback: lack of transparency in process, uneven application of marking criteria, minimal or no individual feedback. Reading these findings within the specific context of City’s cohort – with a high proportion of first-generation and commuter students – as well as contextualising these findings within the post-pandemic university, we will consider how students’ experiences of assessment during Covid may help us to address these challenges.
Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with a current study exploring student experiences of assessment, to reflect on their own assessment practices, and to explore areas for development.
Session structure:
10 minute presentation – Research overview: rationale, methodology, research context (student background) and preliminary findings.
10 minute group discussion – how do the challenges students report experiencing with assessments manifest in participants’ own contexts? How do they relate to the challenges lecturers experience with assessments?
10 minute feedback
5 minute presentation – overview of findings relating to what City students value about assessment and what was beneficial about assessment practices in the pandemic.
10 minute group discussion – how might we use these findings to address the challenges previously identified? What can we learn from practices in the pandemic? How can we enable students to connect more closely with what they see as the valuable aspects of assessment?
15 minute feedback and questions – Overall reflection and brief discussion of the question: what might an assessment action plan for City include? Time for participant questions and feedback.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
– Discuss the challenges students experience with assessment;
– Identify ways to address these challenges within specific pedagogical contexts;
– Draft an assessment action plan informed by the research findings shared.
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab References
N/A
