Embedding excellence through fusion of education, research and professional practice
An updated version of the Generic Assessment Criteria (GAC) has been approved by Senate, effective from the start of the next academic year (2021-2). This was an opportunity to refresh the Generic Assessment Criteria (ARPP 6f ), 5 years since it was last extensively updated, in order to more closely align with recent Quality Assurance… Read more » about Updated Generic Assessment Criteria approved
This month’s Assessment & Feedback Masterclass, the second in a series of three, looked at some principles and strategies for effective feedback. Dai Hounsell, Visiting Professor, and Anne Quinney from FLIE, discussed themes raised by the participants – including flipping feedback; helping students to recognise the range of feedback opportunities (assessment literacy); and two-stage exams…. Read more » about Report on the 2nd Masterclass with Dai Hounsell and Anne Quinney
A recent contribution (21st March 2021) to the Times Higher Education online resources by Professor David Nicol of the University of Glasgow, well known for his work on assessment and feedback, sets out the steps for creating opportunities for students to improve learning by comparing the work they are producing to a range of sources… Read more » about Self-Feedback
Effective assessment and feedback is underpinned by sound curriculum design. Some programme teams may have participated in LEAP (Learning Excellence Acceleration Programme) workshops on curriculum design led by staff from the Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL), the forerunner of FLIE and will be familiar with some of the pedagogic building blocks of curriculum design… Read more » about Preparing for Curriculum Design
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, the QAA, has issued new guidance on degree outcome descriptions for Level 6. https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/quality-code/annex-d-outcome-classification-descriptions-for-fheq-level-6-and-fqheis-level-10-degrees.pdf?sfvrsn=824c981_10 At BU, the Centre for Fusion Learning, Innovation and Excellence (FLIE) and Academic Quality are reviewing the wording of the current BU Generic Assessment Criteria to ensure they are in alignment with this new… Read more » about Generic Assessment Criteria – new QAA guidance.
At BU we have adopted the principle of assessment for learning and this is explicit in academic policy documents, particularly policies 6f (Generic Assessment Criteria Procedure) and 6c (Principles of Assessment Design). Providing feedback on assignments in such a way that it contributes to learning, in addition to justifying or confirming the mark or grade,… Read more » about Effective feedback
My last FLIE Blog post explained principles underpinning the BU Generic Assessment Criteria. In this post I want to share an example of adding additional feedback comments which contextualise the expectations for a specific discipline or profession. Colleagues from the Law programme team in BUBS worked together, in consultation with FLIE, to develop additional feedback… Read more » about Adding discipline/profession specific statements to the Generic Assessment Criteria.
The current form of the Generic Assessment Criteria (Academic Regulations Policies and Procedures 6f) is the outcome of a collaborative project led by the Centre for Excellence in Learning, the forerunner of FLIE, involving Faculty representatives, the BU Students Union, and Academic Quality, with scrutiny and input from committees, staff consultation events and final ratification… Read more » about Making full use of the BU Generic Assessment Criteria.
This visual from the Re-engineering Assessment Practices project (www.reap.ac.uk) is designed to help students understand the many forms that feedback takes and their role in maximising feedback opportunities. It could be included in your Brightspace resources, used in assignment tutorials, to accompany assignment briefings, with formative activities and in Academic Advisor meetings. You can find… Read more » about Helping students to understand feedback
At this point in the semester you might find these examples, from the BU Assessment & Feedback Toolkit, timely and useful. Formative assessment is a formative task/assessment which is developmental for students’ learning but does not contribute to credit marks. There are many ways in which to engage students in formative feedback activities that help… Read more » about Formative feedback activities
