Assessment in Higher Education: Professional Development for Teachers

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/assessment-higher-education

Introduction

**Course Review: Assessment in Higher Education: Professional Development for Teachers** In the realm of higher education, the ability to design and implement effective assessment methodologies is crucial not just for gauging student achievement, but also for enhancing the overall learning experience. This brings us to the insightful course offered by Coursera: **Assessment in Higher Education: Professional Development for Teachers**, created by Risbo at Erasmus University Rotterdam. This MOOC is meticulously crafted for educators aiming to elevate their teaching methods through informed assessment design. ### Overview and Learning Outcomes This course succinctly aims to equip educators with the essential knowledge and skills needed for preparing, creating, and evaluating assessments that align with academic objectives. By the end of the course, participants will be adept at designing assessments that are constructively aligned, ensuring coherence between content, cognitive levels, and assessment methods. This competency is vital for teachers who are dedicated to fostering effective learning outcomes for their students. ### Course Structure The course is thoughtfully structured into several modules, each targeting a fundamental aspect of assessment in higher education. Here’s a closer look at what participants can expect: 1. **The Role of Assessment in Higher Education** The initial week sets the stage by addressing the foundational questions surrounding assessment. Educators will engage with insights from leading experts on assessment, exploring its positive and negative effects. A standout feature is the introduction of the Utility formula for making informed assessment choices, which lays a solid groundwork for informed decision-making. 2. **The Assessment Cycle and Assessment Plan** Building on the foundational knowledge, this segment focuses on creating an assessment plan. It underscores the importance of aligning assessments with intended learning outcomes, ensuring that the chosen methods are valid and reliable. By employing an assessment matrix, educators can streamline the development of questions, thus saving time while enhancing the quality of assessments. 3. **Feedback and Grading Design** This module delves into the pivotal role of feedback in the learning process. Participants will explore various types of rubrics and their applications, gaining insights into effective grading methods and cut-off scores. Understanding the nuances of feedback enhances educators' ability to guide their students constructively, leading to better learning outcomes. 4. **Assessment Construction** In this critical segment, the course emphasizes the importance of reliability and validity in assessments. Educators will learn how to construct assessments that truly reflect students' abilities, thus ensuring fairness and accuracy. This is essential for maintaining the integrity of the educational process, recognizing that assessments have significant implications for students’ futures. 5. **Assessment Analysis and Evaluation** Concluding the course, this module focuses on the crucial step of analyzing assessment results. Educators will learn how to interpret data, identify performance trends, and derive actionable insights that can inform their teaching practices. This reflective process is key to continuous improvement in both assessment quality and instructional strategies. ### Recommendations I highly recommend this course to all educators in higher education, particularly those who may feel overwhelmed by the complexities of assessment design and execution. The structured modules and expert insights provide a comprehensive guide that empowers educators to not only assess effectively but to also enhance student learning outcomes substantially. The collaborative environment offered by the MOOC allows for interaction with peers, which can lead to rich discussions and the sharing of best practices. Furthermore, the applied approach of this course means that what you learn is directly applicable to your teaching practice. ### Conclusion **Assessment in Higher Education: Professional Development for Teachers** is an invaluable resource for any educator seeking to refine their assessment strategies. With a clear focus on practical applications, this course stands as a testament to the importance of effective assessment in shaping the academic and professional futures of students. Enroll today to transform your teaching and support your students in their learning journeys.

Syllabus

The role of assessment in higher education

In the first week of this course you’ll get insight in some basic but fundamental questions about assessment. Why do we assess in higher education? What are possible positive and negative effects of assessment? And in what way can we make an effort in choosing the most appropriate assessment method(s). Some leading experts on assessment are introduced to you and might enlighten your thoughts. Additionally, you will be introduced to the Utility formula, which will assist you in making purposeful assessment choices.

As research shows, assessment plays an important role in steering the learning process. There is, however, not one best method of assessment. So, how can you select the right methods of assessments for your course? Making an assessment plan can help you select the right testing methods and decide on the relative weight of each assessment for the final result of a course. An assessment plan also helps to ensure that the assessment addresses the intended learning outcomes. In addition, it provides a good overview of the test arrangement for a course that will be published in the course manual. This makes an assessment plan a helpful tool for examiners and an important instrument for quality assurance. With an assessment matrix, you ensure that all the selected learning objectives are covered in your assessment. This also helps to ensure that your assessment will be both valid and reliable. Whereas making an assessment matrix may feel like additional work, using it will actually save you time as you will develop questions and assignments that exactly match your learning objectives and you avoid the risk of formulating too many questions that are aimed at the same content or skill.

In module 1 you have learned about assessment FOR learning and the role assessments play in the learning process of students. In this module we will take this to the next step. You will learn why feedback is so important and how to provide feedback using rubrics. Did you know there are different types of rubrics? Depending on the function of the rubric each type has both its advantages and disadvantages. This module will help you deciding what type of rubric suits your needs. In the stage of grading, methods of setting a cut-off score are important. You will learn about different methods of setting a cut-off score and the advantages and disadvantages of these methods.

The results of student assessments often have far-reaching consequences for their educational or even professional careers. When we allow our assessments to have such impacts on people’s careers, it is of the utmost importance that we are very sure that our measurement is reliable and accurate and a valid representation of students’ actual abilities…. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. The goal for this module is to help you to apply quality criteria for the construction of assessments and assessment items. Because, if we improve the quality of our assessments, we improve the quality of our education, and we will have a huge impact on the future education and careers of our students.

When an assessment has been conducted, there is often a lot of time pressure on grading and publishing the results. However, an important step to take before communicating grades to students is to analyse students’ performance on the different tasks or questions. This will provide you, as an examiner, with invaluable information. Not only about your students’ performance, but also about the quality of your assessment as well as your own teaching. On which aspects did students perform well, and where did they fail? If good students fail on certain questions, what does this say about the question… or about your teaching? You may need to decide on how to fix certain errors or unexpected situations and think about how this affects students’ grades. What are the things to consider when performing an exam or item analysis? What do you look for? How do you draw conclusions and make plans for future improvements?