Assessment Practices

Assessment is a critical part of education, both in terms of formative and summative assessments. Assessments must assess the key principles that students should learn as part of a module, so that a passing mark indicates a level of mastery of the desired qualities. Therefore, in my courses, I focus on assessments that are closely aligned with the learning outcomes. It is critical for students to be able to write descriptions of rocks in any field of geology that they may enter in the future, and so I designed a practical project that exclusively involves detailed descriptions of rocks. When I have spoken with geologists as mines, they have described the importance of using spreadsheets for basic computational work, and so I designed a practical project that spans multiple weeks and requires use of spreadsheets. This alignment of assessments and learning outcomes allows for the coursework to flow logically. 

In my courses, I have found that the use of group assignments is a valuable asset for student growth. In these scenarios, the group is assessed together, and so has to work together to find the best solutions. This encourages peer learning, and also allows for distribution of the workload, so that individual students are not overly pressed for the work. Additionally, it means that marking can be better focused on the student needs, because the students working together are linked in their understanding. 

When providing feedback to students, I try to focus on areas most in need of improvement, and I try to use the assessment time as an extra learning opportunity.