Effective Alternative Assessment Practices In Higher Education

COVID-19 and increased attention to how institutions of higher education (IHEs) serve an increasingly diverse student population have brought conversations about “standard” practices from the margins to the center as faculty explore how to improve learning and student success for all students. Historically, IHEs were built by a privileged class for a privileged class, a system, and structure built on specific epistemologies, practices, and habits of mind and language that replicate privilege and leave many students underserved in their academic pursuits. One way faculty have increased equity in their college classrooms is through the use of alternative assessment (alt-assessment) practices. This volume aims to share the experiences of faculty who have leveraged “non-traditional” grading paradigms for the sake of increasing student learning, a sense of belonging, and equity in their classrooms. Meant to orient faculty who are considering how to implement alt-assessment in their own classes as well as those who are already employing various grading frameworks, this volume will celebrate new and innovative approaches, share lessons learned, and invite a broader coalition of faculty into the stream of conversation about pedagogical innovation. Faculty, educators, and practitioners share their approaches to alternate assessment in this volume, as well as the critiques, lessons, and outcomes associated with their pedagogical decisions. Written by practitioners for practitioners, we hope the book will provide theoretical and practical guidance for alternative assessment practices such as ungrading, contract grading, standards-based grading, and labor-based grading across various disciplines and within different academic contexts.

Both educators and their students are involved in the process of assessment – all parties are expected to meet and exceed expectations in the face of competing conditions. New practices are being developed to enhance students’ participation, especially in their own assessment, be it though peer-review, reflective assessment, the introduction of new technologies, or other novel solutions. Though widely researched, few have measured these innovations’ effectiveness in terms of satisfaction, perceived learning, or performance improvements. Innovative Practices for Higher Education Assessment and Measurement bridges the gap between political discourse, theoretical approach, and teaching practices in terms of assessment in higher education. Bringing new insights and presenting novel strategies, this publication brings forth a new perception of the importance of assessment and offers a set of successful, innovative practices. This book is ideal for educators, administrators, policy makers, and students of education.

Provides comprehensive practical guidance on managing and improving assessment within higher education.

Assessment really does matter in higher education. Internationally, academics - and those who support them - are seeking better ways to assess students, recognizing that diverse methods are available which may solve many of the problems associated with the evaluation of learning. Assessment Matters in Higher Education provides both theoretical perspectives and pragmatic advice on how to conduct effective assessment. It draws clearly on both relevant research and on its contributors' practical first hand experience (warts and all!). It asks, for example: * how can assessment methods best become an integral part of learning? * what strategies can be used to make assessment fairer, more consistent and more efficient? * how effective are innovative approaches to assessment, and in what contexts do they prosper? * to what extent can students become involved in their own assessment? * how can we best assess learning in professional practice contexts? This is an important resource for all academics and academic managers involved in assessing their students.

This book is a practical guide to Assessment for Learning (AfL) in Higher Education.

All teaching institutions recognise the need to make continual improvements in the quality of teaching and learning. But how, in the resource-constrained environments of universities, can quality be improved without increasing resources to fund it? The governing body at the University of New South Wales gave its president and vice-chancellor three years to find a way to do just that in the area of student assessment. Improving Assessment in Higher Education offers a wealth of detail on this innovative project which aimed to improve the efficiency of student assessment while maintaining and improving its quality.

With a unique focus on the relationship between assessment and engagement this book explores what works in terms of keeping students on course to succeed. Against a backdrop of massification and the associated increase in student diversity there is an escalating requirement for personalized, technology driven learning in higher education. In addition, the advent of student fees has promoted a consumer culture resulting in students having an increasingly powerful voice in shaping curricula to their own requirements. How does one engage and retain a group of students of such diverse culture, ethnicity, ambition and experience? Using examples from a variety of institutions worldwide this edited collection provides a well-researched evidence base of current thinking and developments in assessment practices in higher education. The chapters discuss: Staff and student views on assessment Engaging students through assessment feedback Assessment for learning Assessing for employability Interdisciplinary and transnational assessment Technology supported assessment for retention The book draws together a wealth of expertise from a range of contributors including academic staff, academic developers, pedagogical researchers, National Teaching Fellows and Centres for Excellence in Higher Education. Recognising that a pedagogy which is embedded and taken-for-granted in one context might be completely novel in another, the authors share best practice and evaluate evidence of assessment strategies to enable academic colleagues to make informed decisions about adopting new and creative approaches to assessment. This interdisciplinary text will prove an invaluable tool for those working and studying in higher education.

Editor John Schuh and his fellow contributors, all experts in the field, detail the methodological aspects of conducting assessment projects specifically for the student affairs practitioner who is ready to conduct assessment projects, but is not quite sure how to manage their technical aspects. Using a variety of case studies and concrete examples to illustrate various assessment approaches, the authors lead the reader step-by-step through each phase of the assessment process with jargon-free, hands-on guidance.