Do you do what you have to do as an Examination Board? Would you like to find out? Below are some instruments you may use to determine to what extent you pay (sufficient) attention to the various tasks that are part of your role and position. You can also use the more elaborate checklist as a basis for consultation for instance with your programme management. Is it clear what needs to be done and by whom? Are the activities for the assurance of the quality of assessments, as carried out by the programme management, and the safeguarding activities as intended or carried out by the EB aligned? What is already happening and what still needs to be done? The checklist can be supportive to address all the important issues.
- Checklist at programme level Quality assurance and Safeguarding
This checklist was developed especially for the UT. It helps to determine the extent to which 'quality assurance and safeguarding' is already in order. It indicates important areas for attention and is mainly intended to provide a basis for thinking about and discussing what is needed and the forming of ideas about actions and measures. It is a tool to determine what is already in order, to identify possible problem areas and to formulate actions for improvement. Feel free, as a user, to add items, choose other columns, or adjust the layout and order. The checklist has been drawn up from the viewpoint of both 'quality assurance' (more related to the tasks and responsibilities of the programme management) and 'safeguarding' (more related to the tasks and responsibilities of the Examination Board). You may choose - based on your specific role or interest - to focus on one part or both. Both checklists are created from a different perspective but at the same time there is an overlap in relevant themes and it might be interesting to check both perspectives and see in which way they are related. The entire system must be in order; actors can look at it and act from different perspectives and authorities but at the same time is it is valuable to know each other's perspectives and approaches.
It is recommended to fill in this checklist and to discuss it with other actors and bodies involved in assessment and examination. It is precisely the discussions about this that lead to (new) insights and supported points of action. For an overview of the roles, tasks and responsibilities of actors involved in assessment policy please consult the appendix of the UT Assessment framework.
- A more elaborate method (but only available in Dutch) - De Toetsing getoetst.
Another method for investigating the quality of assessment, is described in the book "Kwaliteit van toetsing onder de loep: handvatten om de kwaliteit van toetsing in het hoger onderwijs te analyseren, verbeteren en borgen' (Dutch titel; can be translated as: "Quality of Assessment under the magnifying glass: Tools for analysing, improving and securing the quality of assessment in higher education".)
The methodology De toetsing getoetst, offers higher education institutions a cyclical instrument for self-evaluation from a broad perspective. The central element is an 'assessment web', which makes coherent factors in assessment quality visible. In this web, assessment entities are connected to the development phase in quality assurance via 'nodes'. The outer ring is the activity-oriented phase. The programme climbs, so to speak, to the inner ring: the chain-oriented phase. The closer to the core, the more sustainable the programme works on the quality of assessment.
For more information, see this website: https://www.han.nl/projecten/2011/de-toetsing-getoetst/ Links to an external site. You can also find out more about this approach via two articles: OU_2016_artikel_De_touwtjes_in_handen_toetskwaliteit_in_het_hbo.pdf Download; OU-artikel_Toetskwaliteit onder de loep.pdf - UVA checklist for Examination Boards (Dutch)
The University of Amsterdam also developed a checklist especially focused on the tasks and responsibilities of Examination Boards. You will notice there is - logically - an overlap with the checklist we created for the UT. If you are interested, have a look at the UvA site Links to an external site.. - KIT instrument for Examination Boards (Dutch)
Examination Boards from the Hogeschool Utrecht developed the KIT Plus Borgingsinstrument voor Examencommissies Links to an external site..
Illustration: De kwaliteitspiramide van eigentijds toetsen en beoordelen. Sluijsmans, van Schilt-Mol, Peeters & Joosten-ten Brinke, 2015
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