PE7067 - Educational Assessment in Practice

The programme uses Technology Enhanced Learning as a framework to support and enhance teaching and learning. As a Distance Learning programme, delivery is entirely online via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Each module is supported by numerous interactive sessions over a period of 10 weeks of learning, leading to an assessment submission week (you will study one module at a time). Session delivery captures a variety of formats acknowledging the nature and content of the individual module and subject, alongside your needs as a student. You will also be required to engage with and evaluate current research in assessment and use this to inform your participation in interactive discussion boards, where you will be able to share your thoughts with others and engage in debate. Some sessions are text based, others utilise audio and video tools to deliver the learning materials. All sessions have interactive elements that enable you to enhance your understanding and test your learning, thereby facilitating formative feedback. All modules are supported by online reading lists that provide simplified access to various electronic, digital and hard copy sources. You also can participate in scheduled Blackboard Collaborate sessions, in which you will be able to “video-conference” academic tutors and students.

Within the programme, there are wide ranging opportunities for you to engage actively in research-rich learning through problem solving, project work and real-world examples all of which are informed by current research and practice, as well as reading journal papers that develop your theoretical insight. All of the Level 7 modules that form the programme cover each of the four elements of research-rich learning, but with increasing emphasis on you, as a student, being an active participant rather than part of an audience. There is a significant application of research-based (enquiry-based) and research-tutored approaches, the former being significantly supported through organisation-oriented summative assessment.

There are a range of mechanisms to support you academically throughout your Distance Learning study with us. These will include induction and study support interventions, supported electronically, to recognise the different backgrounds of students entering this programme at Level 7.
You will have the support of an academic Programme Leader from the subject discipline who will lead the programme from an academic perspective and will be available to support you in terms of any academic guidance you require. From an individual module perspective, you will be supported academically by the module tutor leading the individual module you are undertaking at any given point in time, alongside the receipt of peer support from your fellow participants on your module, be it through Blackboard Collaborate and/or online discussion boards.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. You will criticaly explorethe aims and purposes of educational assessment
2. You will identify and critically discuss the role of assessment for learning; fairness and bias in assessment and validity and reliability in assessment

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
1. Develop and implement educational assessment both formative and summative
2. Critically analyse ideas of reliability and validity of educational assessment in the public domain

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
1. Enhance your communication skills, as well as demonstrating independent intellectual curiosity by researching and identifying appropriate literature to inform and develop your discussions and practice as well as your summative assessment.

Formative Assessment
Prepare a poster presentation on the role of assessment for learning; fairness and bias and validity and reliability in assessment
MLOs: KU2; IPSA 2; PVA1

Feedback
You will be provided with constructive verbal feedback from tutors and your peers.

Summative Assessment
You will be required to maintain an ongoing portfolio of assessment items selected from live assessments. This will be developed as you progress through the module. The final assessment will be carried out on submission of the final portfolio. (3000 words)

MLOs: (KU1 & 2); (IPSA1&2) (PVA 1)

Feedback
You will be provided with written feedback using the criteria and the elaborated marking scale.

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Assessment plays an important role in society in terms of exemplifying the values of that society and has an influence on the life chances of individuals. Moreover, it provides information to stakeholders, such as parents, employers and higher education institutions. Discussions of assessment are often found in the public domain, where some of the technical and conceptual issues are poorly presented and understood. This module will provide the opportunity for critical analyses of the use and misuse of assessment within educational contexts.