Share, Adopt, Adapt Workshop: Exploring Student Engagement with Assessment. EVENT POSTPONED

SORRY, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. This workshop will feed in to current discourse surrounding assessment. It will provide the opportunity to hear about three projects across the University that have explored different aspects of how students perceive and understand the literacy of assessment. Findings will provide the opportunity for the audience to reflect on the assumptions made in producing assessment criteria and how they are communicated to students – looking at the language and methods used.

Presenters include:

Caroline Campbell(LCS) presenting her completed PRIA (Pedagogic Research in the Arts) funded project Developing Students’ Assessment Literacies

Huahui Zhao(Education) presenting her completed LITE Teaching Enhancement Project Inclusivity of the undergraduate assessment criteria: enhancing accessibility, applicability and usefulness of the assessment criteria from students' perspectives

Milena Marinkova and Joy Robbins(LCS) presenting their ongoing LITE Fellowship project Assessing the impact of online assessment rubrics

A more detailed overview of the projects can be found below.

A vegetarian buffet lunch will be served.

Overview of Presentations

Caroline Campbell
This presentation will focus on the findings of a PRIA*-funded project undertaken in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies (LCS). The aims were to investigate how LCS students interact with the marking criteria; to identify what students find difficult about understanding the marking criteria; to consider where improvements can be made; and to understand how to encourage students to engage with the criteria. The project sought to identify the conceptual challenges as well as the linguistic barriers inherent in understanding marking criteria. Designed as a collaborative student/staff project with six Student Partners and one member of staff, the Student Partners analysed the various essay marking criteria at Levels 1/2/3. They conducted an online survey as well as face-to-face interviews. The findings identify how we can enhance our practice by engaging both students and staff in conversation about assessment and feedback.

Huahui Zhao:
Inclusivity of the undergraduate assessment criteria: enhancing accessibility, applicability and usefulness of the assessment criteria from students' perspectives
This presentation will report a completed project which explored undergraduate students’ perceptions and experience of the assessment criteria. It will argue and evidence that sharing the assessment criteria with learners is insufficient to make the assessment criteria transparent for them. Instead, it will demonstrate that transparency requires the accessible, applicable and useful assessment criteria and tutors’ support for students in various yet meaningful ways.

110 undergraduate students from different disciplines at the University of Leeds were involved in this project. A survey was designed to explore their perceptions of accessibility, applicability and usefulness of their current assessment criteria and their experience of using the criteria and receiving tutor support to understand the criteria. Specifically, it will discuss

• How inclusive the current assessment criteria are in terms of their accessibility, applicability and usefulness and the intertwined relationships among them
• Whether and how tutor support would impact the accessibility, applicability and usefulness of the assessment criteria.

The presentation will be finished with students’ suggestions on enhancing the inclusivity of the assessment criteria based on interview data.

Milena Marinkova and Joy Robbins
With the current move to electronic management of assessment (EMA) at Leeds, it is vital to understand and assemble evidence for the impact of online rubrics on assessment and learning. This 1-year LITE-funded scholarship project will examine if and how online rubrics enhance learners’ assessment literacy and writing development. Fifteen participants will be recruited from current Language Centre students at the pre-Masters level. Student partners will be asked to record a think-aloud of their use of online rubrics and then invited to a semi-structured interview to explore further their understanding of the rubric and its developmental impact.