Further information


Pedagogical aims and rationale

The Humanities and Social Sciences Assessment Toolkit is an interactive mechanism through which to explore forms of assessment and related skills. It provides a web-based snapshot of forms of assessment used in HSS in 2021-2022 and maps each form of assessment to the skills typically involved in and developed through that form of assessment. It also showcases sample supporting materials used to communicate assignment briefs and related information to students. The project has two aims.

1. Supporting the strategic diversification of assessments

The first aim is to support the diversification of forms of assessment used in HSS. Building on Shirley Shipman’s programme-level skills audit and tracking tool, this project audits the forms of assessment across the entire faculty and presents a snapshot catalogue of these forms.

Our audit suggests that most disciplines tend to have one or two signature forms of assessment (i.e. forms of assessment which dominate the programme’s assessment strategy), a small suite of secondary forms of assessment (i.e. forms which are repeated several times across a programme) and a further limited tertiary array of single-use forms of assessment. In many cases in HSS subjects, the signature and secondary assessment forms favour independent academic writing.

Use of a variety of forms of assessment has significant benefits, in particular with respect to inclusivity and equity:

· it decreases the risk of disadvantaging students for whom the tasks involved in conventional independent written work are disproportionately challenging (Race 1999);

· it enables students to engage with and rise to new challenges (HEA 2016);

· it appeals to a wider range of interests (Bevitt 2015);

· it can increase student engagement with their learning (McDowell and Sambell 1999);

· it supports students in developing a broader range of skills and experience (HEA 2016);

· it can exploit and engage students with the affordances of new digital technologies (HEA 2016).

By showcasing the range of forms of assessment used in HSS, and sharing sample supporting materials, the project aims to provide teaching staff with inspiring ideas and illustrative examples through which to develop the range of assessment practices employed within programmes.

2: Extracting and articulating the skills involved in assessments

The second aim of the project is to support staff in articulating the skills developed through each form of assessment. Graduate skills and employability are sometimes seen by Higher Education teaching staff as separate to discipline-specific knowledge and skills (Artess et al 2016, Bennett, Dunne and Carré 2000), and discussion and development of graduate skills is sometimes siloed off to work-based learning modules and extra-curricula activities (Artess et al 2016). Explicit critical reflection upon students’ skills development is not consistently a routine part of teaching and learning within modules. Graduate employability is enhanced by ensuring that students are able to “make a connection” between their discipline and their development of skills, and able to reflect on and communicate their skills development to potential employers (Artess et al 2016, p.7; cf. Higher Education Academy 2013). This project maps each form of assessment to a detailed list of skills conventionally involved in and developed through that form of assessment. The mapping is based on a combination of reviewing assignment descriptions and assessment criteria, external research (e.g. Carless et al 2006) and deductive reasoning. Through this mapping, the project provides language through which teaching staff can easily ‘extract’ the employability gains naturally entailed within forms of assessment, enabling staff to then more easily share the details of skills development with students within, for example, assessment rationales and briefs. This in turn better supports students in recognising and being able to articulate the skills they are developing through their degree courses. This mapping can also inform the process of developing assessment strategies, considering targeted development of particular skills as a factor in selecting new forms of assessment.

The project will be of interest to teaching staff interested in strategically diversifying programme assessment portfolios and enhancing their practices in communicating in-curricula skills development to students.

Provisos

Provisos re. Assessments:

  • This snapshot is not comprehensive: a variety of forms of assessment have been selected from responses to a staff survey in autumn 2021 and from an audit of all modules across HSS programmes running in 2021-2022 . The modules from which sample material are drawn are not the only examples of use of these assessments across the faculty, and we would welcome further examples of good practice in communication of assignment tasks.

  • The audit covered undergraduate modules only, not foundation or postgraduate modules.

  • Some types of assessment involve more than one aspect (e.g. a poster presentation involves visual, written and oral communication). Categorisation of these forms under a single Assessment Format necessarily prioritises one aspect over others. Some types of assessment could therefore be categorised using several different Assessment Format categories. We have used the Assessment Format category that is used by the module leader in each case.

  • Exams have not been included as, while it can be presumed that most exams come under the Written assignment (Individual) format of Set exercise format, the nature of the tasks within exams is not easily discernible from moodle mining.

  • Some forms of assessment may seem very specific to a particular discipline/module, but many can be transferred and/or adapted for use in other contexts.

Provisos re. Skill Types:

  • The list of Skill Types used here has been developed from an audit and review of a range of lists of skills (e.g. Carless et al 2006). Many other lists and categorisations of skills exist.

  • The skills mapping is based on a combination of reviewing assignment descriptions and assessment criteria and deductive reasoning.

  • Some skill types can have areas of overlap.

  • The short list of skills presented as typically involved in each form of assessment is not comprehensive, but rather prioritises the skills often more critical to the form.

Disclaimer:

  • Not all of the sample supporting materials have been reviewed with respect to compliance with accessibility guidance, and some may have been drawn from moodle prior to the implementation of accessibility guidance.


We welcome feedback!

Please contact Shirley Shipman (sshipman@brookes.ac.uk) or Andrea Macrae (andrea.macrae@brookes.ac.uk) with any queries, comments, or additional assessment examples and supporting materials.


References

Artess, J., Hooley, T., Mellors-Bourne, R. (2016). Employability: A Review of the Literature 2012-2016. York: Higher Education Academy.

Bennett, N., Dunne, E., and Carré, C. (2000). Skills Development in Higher Education and Employment. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.

Bevitt, S. (2015) ‘Assessment innovation and student experience: a new assessment challenge and call for a multi-perspective approach to assessment research’. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 40.1. 103-119.

Dalrymple ,R., Macrae, A., Pal, M., and Shipman, S. (2021). 'Inequalities and differential opportunities', in Advance HE Employability: A Review of the Literature 2016-2021. Higher Education Academy. pp.60-66. Available online at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/employability-review-literature-2016-2021

Higher Educaation Academy (2013). Framework for Transforming Assessment in Higher Education. York: Higher Education Academy.

Higher Education Academy (2013). Framework for Embedding Employability in Higher Education. York: Higher Education Academy.

Hounsell, D. et al (2007). Innovative assessment across the disciplines An analytical review of the literature. York: Higher Education Academy.

McDowell, L. and Sambell, K. (1999). ‘The Experience of Innovative Assessment: Student Perspectives.’ In Assessment Matters in Higher Education: Choosing and Using Diverse Approaches, eds. S. Brown and A. Glasner. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. pp.71-82.

Race, P. (1999). ‘Why Assess Innovatively?’ In Assessment Matters in Higher Education: Choosing and Using Diverse Approaches, eds. S. Brown and A. Glasner. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. pp.57-70.