ABSTRACT
The chapter looks at ways to promote and support learning through good practice in the design of assessments, which include mechanisms to deter plagiarism and build in opportunities to facilitate the provision of feedback. Fundamental to the design of an assessment strategy, and its ability to support student learning, is the designing in of opportunities for providing feedback to students about their learning. The link between the intended learning outcomes, the assessment method and the assessment criteria is, therefore, fundamental to good assessment design. The modular nature of learning in Higher Education has had a tendency to atomise learning, with each unit having its own assessment task(s), which in turn can lead to a climate of over-assessment. Assessment for supporting learning is formative assessment, which may or may not have a summative function. An assessment specification is a grid or matrix that relates learning outcomes to the assessment tasks within a course.
