This QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project posed a critical enquiry into what is termed the ‘mysterious quotients’ of commonly used undergraduate assessment terms and phrases.
The maintenance of national standards across the higher education sector relies upon alignment by each higher education provider of their local standards with the descriptors set out in the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications.
Concerns around a lack of consistency and a perceived trend towards grade inflation has resulted in the Advance HE Degree Standards Project which provides professional development for external examiners in their role of safeguarding national standards, and promotes opportunities for the calibration of standards through social moderation activities between academics.
However, a sector-wide shared understanding of the language of assessment and standards amongst academics does not automatically apply to students - for them, this language often remains unintelligible.
It is important for students to understand how the national standards are applied in the context of their discipline and programme. What must they do, and ‘what does good look like’ in relation to the assessments they are asked to undertake?
The project team conducted extensive field research including surveys, interviews and focus groups with staff and students to inform the development of a toolkit to support dialogue, transparency and shared responsibility in the assessment processes.
The focus of the toolkit is encouraging dialogue around the language used in assessments, between staff, staff and students, and among students.
The toolkit offers you an opportunity to interrogate your practice and support students via a series of prompt questions at key stages of the assessment and feedback process (design; introduction of assessment brief to students; marking and giving feedback) - these form a cyclical process with opportunities for reflection and enhancement throughout.
Publication date: 19 Jan 2023
The aim of the toolkit is to:
In addition to the toolkit, you can download access the following resources:
In the first part, we look at:
In this second podcast, we speak to staff and students to cover key aspects pertaining to:
University of the West of England
University of Hertfordshire, University of Brighton and University of Greenwich
QAA supports a number of projects every year, covering a range of topics and interest areas. Each is led by a QAA Member, working in collaboration with other members institutions. You can find more information on all projects, and access resources and outputs, on our website.
