Assessment support

Toolbox

Evaluate and improve

What kind of information can you use to evaluate and improve the quality of your assessment?

1. Peer review. When constructing your assignment(s) or project, you can ask a colleague to check whether the assignment is clear and related to the learning objectives. This way, you can avoid getting questions from the students later on or unintended results due to a lack of clarity.
   Pay special attention to the requirements and transparency about how the work or performance of the students will be assessed. 
2. Peer review and check by yourself. By relating criteria (or rubric) to the learning objectives (see Design and Constructing criteria), you can ensure that the criteria and learning objectives are well aligned (covering all learning objectives, no criteria outside the scope of the learning objectives).    
3. Analysis of the test results (pass/fail percentage, average grade, lowest/highest grade, frequencies, etc.). Are the results satisfactory? As expected? Can they be explained?
4. Analysis of the results on criteria level. How did the students score on each of the criteria? What stood out? What could be the cause of certain results related to the criteria? Is action required immediately (before grading) or as an attention point for the next run of the course?   
5. Impressions of the involved teachers/assessors (including TA's). What stood out during the course? What stood out when the work of students was reviewed? Was the quality of the work as expected?  
6. Student evaluation data (SEQ) or information from a student panel.
7. Special circumstances or complaints. For instance, finishing the report took the students longer than expected, and hardly any group submitted their work on time.
8. Inspection moment: Did any particular insights emerge from the inspection moment?

Assessment results information =>  teaching process evaluation
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. In this case, the value and quality of the teaching process, to some extent, can be assessed based on the assessment results. The results will show whether and to what extent (most of) the students have achieved the learning objectives. It will show what students found easy or difficult, or what mistakes are still made. All the information can help to improve the teaching process for the next round. 

Evaluative questions - reflecting on the assessment cycle steps

When evaluating, you can look back on all stages of the assessment process. What are you satisfied with? Where are the opportunities for improvement?
If you worked in a teaching team, you could do this, of course, together. All input, as mentioned before, can be considered.
Looking back at all phases of the assessment cycle, it will become clear that they are interlinked. For example, you are not satisfied with the quality of students' papers. Looking back at the earlier phases, you might realize that your learning objectives were a bit too ambitious or that the assignment description did not properly indicate what to focus on.