ABSTRACT
This text provides background research on different aspects of assessment and learning in higher education together with guidelines, suggestions, examples of practice and activities that are designed to encourage reflection upon the nature and processes of assessment and learning. Its purpose is to help colleagues to refresh and develop their approach to the assessment of student learning. The task of assessing student learning involves knowledge, understanding and skills of assessment and of student learning. Hence we begin the text (Chapter 2) by considering what assessment is, what its purposes are and the emerging trends in assessment in higher education. We then (in Chapter 3) consider briefly the nature of student learning and its assessment. Subsequent chapter (4–12) are concerned with ways of assessing student learning through conventional approaches such as essays, multiple choice questions and problems and less widely used approaches that are often based on self- and peer-assessment. Chapter 13 is devoted to the various uses of IT in assessing, recording and reporting assessments. Chapter 14 is concerned with introducing different forms of assessment into a course and Chapter 15 with some of the assumptions underlying approaches to reliability and validity. The final chapter addresses issues of quality and standards. It is followed by an appendix containing sample examination questions; notes and comments on the activities provided for each chapter; suggestions for further reading and a bibliography.
