Assessment In Higher Education Research Articles

Preferable Course of Study and Learning Support by Business University Students

Assessment of higher education is a multifaceted and multidimensional concept. Therefore this paper focuses on assessment of preferences by business university students. The aim of this paper is to identify preferable course of study and benefits of business higher education in case private business university. The paper shows how students perceive and evaluate study support by modern information and communication technologies and identifies most important areas of their preferences during studies. The results are based on a quantitative survey by questionnaire data collection from all students of surveyed Business University. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyisis, analysis of differences and factor analysis was conducted to find responses from students regarding their perception of the educational process. The analysis found groups of variables with significant appearance of students’ main preferences. The results show orientation of students on benefits of university education mostly in career development (p = 0.000). Prefered curiculum of graduates most importantly contains independent work, significant position at job market and self management. In the area of study support students mostly prefer flexibility and availability of study texts and materials online using mobile applications (Cramer’s V = 0.314, p = 0.013). Other significant group of students focus on expert teachers and knowledge and online / mobile consultaions. The results may help to set up students’ support in order to address current students’ needs and expectations.

Time for university educators to embrace student videography

ABSTRACTThe authors provide an interdisciplinary investigation of student videography for assessment in higher education. Video is becoming a dominant communication modality in our world; school students are taught to create and critique it and educators employ it on-line. Yet the opportunity to include appropriate video-based assessments that capture integrated graduate attributes has been largely missed in higher education. The authors reflect on a health professional student case study which illustrates how video enables students to powerfully demonstrate achievement against learning outcomes: they used filmic techniques to display empathy, patient centred collaboration and interprofessional communication. They also reflect on the barriers to video-based assessment raised by academics. Finally, they call upon leaders in higher education to recognise the utility of multi-media approaches to assessment of complex but critical graduate skills such as communication, digital literacy and interdisciplinarity, in addition to demonstrating the application of disciplinary knowledge to relevant and authentic problems.

Applying formative assessment strategies in the teaching of poetry: An experiment with third-year English studies students at the University of Limpopo

Formative assessment is fundamental to effective teaching and learning. Positioning itself within a discourse that recognises the value of formative assessment in higher education, this article reports on an experiment conducted with third-year English Studies students at the University of Limpopo in which a formative task was designed and administered to students in a poetry class. A feedback system was then established through which students were able to get comments to help them improve their essays on poetry. Final essays were then graded following an assessment rubric designed and disseminated to students. The results indicate that the practical implementation of formative assessment strategies led to students achieving high academic performance and acquiring lifelong skills. Effectively, the innovative application of formative assessment in teaching has the potential to boost transformation in Higher Education Institutions.

BEST ONLINE INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES: REPORT OF PHASE I OF AN ONGOING STUDY

This study examines how best practices in online instruction are the same as, or different from, best practices in face-to-face (F2F) instruction. The book Effectiveness and Efficiency in Higher Education for Adults summarizes some 20 years of research on best practices in F2F instruction. The bases of comparison are principles from the KS&G material and from Chickering and Gamson’s “seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education”. A reason for making these comparisons is that the rapid growth of online instruction promises that online instruction may become the largest source of ongoing higher education. Not surprisingly, interest in assessing the quality of online offerings has also grown. The question is increasingly raised: Are postsecondary institutions effectively “doing their old job in a new way?”. One way to answer that question is to analyze the online instructional practices of faculty with the aid of research on patterns of instruction, face-to-face and online. This paper is abbreviated from a February 14, 2002 report by Marisa Collett, Morris Keeton and Vivian Shayne of the Institute for Research and Assessment in Higher Education for the Office of Distance Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Maryland University College.

Member Reactions to Social Loafers When Doing Group-Based Assignments: A Group Processes Perspective

Understanding how student teachers undertake their group work may provide solid foundation for developing essential skills required for the 21st Century teachers, and subsequently help improve group-based assessment in higher education. However, social loafing has been found to interfere with this assessment mode. This article reports on undergraduate student teachers’ reactions to social loafers when working on group assignments as part of their continuous assessment. It focuses on how they go about doing their group work and react to the social loafers. The data were collected using face-to-face semi-structured interviews from 18 purposefully and conveniently selected participants. The findings have indicated procedures that students observe in doing their group assignments such as formulation of own group norms and rules, and holding of meetings for the work being determined by the nature of the assignments, and their submission deadlines. Additionally, it has been found that group members employ humanitarian, punitive and threatening approaches as they react to social loafers. The article concludes that proper planning for students’ group assignments is important and; both instructors and students should play their roles accordingly to overcome the problem of social loafing when the use of group-based assessments is indispensable within higher education contexts.

Generic Skills Assessment Through Implementation of Group Based Learning to Understand SDGs

In this competitive world, it is important for students to acquire generic skills and its assessment in higher education is scarce. This study is an attempt to address the effect of group based learning on generic skills development and and also an approach to spread the knowledge of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Like generic skills, educating young students about SDGs has become crucial. A workshop was conducted for 3 days and a total of 12 students filled in the questionnaire for group and self assessment of generic skills for 10 selected generic skills after every workshop. The overall results indicated that the group based learning have positive impact on the development of generic skills. We found that all generic skills were more developed in group assessment than individual assessment. When the inter-relationship among the skills were assessed for individual ratings using network analysis, the results revealed that the effective team work was strongly associated with co-operativity (r 2 =0.7529 p <0.001), communication (r 2 =0.7146, p <0.001) and information sharing (r 2 =0.7529 p <0.001). The significant finding of this study is the use of shared educational materials which helped the students to overcome the language barrier and be more interactive to achieve the given goal. Further, this study has explored the application of group based learning as an effective educational approach to introduce any designed studies (in this case, SDGs) for fostering the innovative human resources belonging to different educational backgrounds. Moreover, this study also emphasizes on the importance of teaching SDGs to the engineering students for their capacity building, so that they not only understand but also act to ensure that the goals are met for better future. Keywords: Engineering students, Generic skills, Group based learning, Self assessment, Group Assessment Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Individual differences in college-age learners: The importance of relational reasoning for learning and assessment in higher education.

The term individual differences refers to the physical, behavioral, cognitive, social, and emotional attributes that make each human unique. Late adolescence to young adulthood represents a time of significant neurobiological and cognitive transformations that contribute further to human variability. Those transformations include an increase in the white matter of the brain accompanied by an increased capacity for higher-order thinking, reasoning, decision-making, and selfcontrol. These capacities fall under the category of executive functions. The purpose of this article is to overview one particular executive function, relational reasoning; to consider its significance to college students' learning and performance; and to argue for its inclusion in assessment programs within higher education. Relational reasoning can be defined as the ability to discern meaningful patterns within any informational stream. Through an orchestrated program of research, four forms of relational reasoning have been identified that reflect perceived similarities (analogical), discrepancies (anomalous), contradictions (antinomous), and contrasts (antithetical). These four forms have been documented in studies of doctors diagnosing cases, science and mathematics teachers providing instruction, and engineering students designing new products. These manifestations have also formed the structure of formal measures of relational reasoning that have been shown to be psychometrically sound indicators of this executive function. This article closes with an argument for the inclusion of relational reasoning in performance assessments designed for higher education. Consistent with views of competence as a continuum, it is argued that this inclusion should encompass the measurement of relational reasoning both as an underlying general competence and as a component of domain-specific performance.

Re-visiting Frameworks for Enhancing Assessment in Higher Education

Re-visiting Frameworks for Enhancing Assessment in Higher Education

PhD EDUCATION QUALITY EVALUATION: EXPERIENCE OF UNIVERSITIES OF LITHUANIA AND FINLAND

The article suggests an overview and analysis of the principles and procedures of quality assurance in higher education and quality assessment of PhD study in Ukraine in the context of European integration. The leading international experience on the research topic for which we have selected universities of the partner countries Lithuania and Finland cooperating with the Institute of Higher Education in international projects is presented.The international experience on quality assessment of PhD study is presented by an analysis of the official documents available in English on the Lithuanian and Finnish universities’ websites in open access. The presented leading experience of the European universities have shown that the issue of quality assessment of doctoral programmes and study is considered as a part of the overall quality assessment in higher education and is not single out as a separate procedure. In case of absence of mandatory accreditation of educational programmes in higher education in Finland, a system of auditing the content and correspondence of the internal system of quality assurance in higher education institution, but not of separate educational programmes for PhD students, is in place. The responsibility for quality in PhD education is shared between a PhD student, supervisor and university structural units when their particular roles and functions are exceptionally important.

The Construction of the Quality Evaluation System of Multi-angle Tourism Higher Education

The booming development of tourism also makes some scholars gradually pay attention to the research on the quality of higher education in tourism-related majors, and some research results have been produced in recent years. Many scholars believe that studying the quality standards of tourism higher education is of great significance to the development of tourism higher education. This paper reviews the research contents of higher education quality assessment at home and abroad, and finds that scholars at home and abroad have different views on education quality assessment. Therefore, this paper collects the research articles of domestic and foreign scholars on higher education, classifies and compares their research contents, finds out the shortcomings of domestic education quality evaluation, refers to foreign research experience on education quality evaluation, and explores new directions suitable for domestic education quality evaluation. It is found that the quality assessment of higher education in foreign countries is earlier than that in China. Most of the higher education quality assessment in China is teaching-oriented, while some scholars are teacher-oriented. Only a few scholars conduct teaching assessment comprehensively from the aspects of school, teaching and students. Foreign scholars regard students as the important object of teaching evaluation and give them the most important status. Based on the current research results, this paper constructs a student-centered and multi-perspective tourism higher education quality evaluation system from five perspectives: teaching resources, curriculum evaluation, teaching evaluation and monitoring, teaching output and overall satisfaction of students.

Impact of Formative Assessment and Feedback on Higher Education

This research study is based on the literature review through documentary analysis. In this study it is aimed to find out the impact of formative and feedback assessment in Higher Education in Pakistan. Assessment is a key role to enhance both teaching and learning and is needed in assuring the nature of training development, including analytic testing, strategies are related to formal and no formal assessment strategies directed by teachers amid the learning procedure with the end goal to adjust educating and learning exercises to enhance understudy achievement. Input is the best apparatus when started by the understudy, related to self and associate to assessment. The study was discussed in detail through theoretical framework on nature formative feedback and formative assessment. It is well up to the mark and standard policy documented about the assessment that has a great influence on the teaching and learning process.

‘I’m an assessment illiterate’: towards a shared discourse of assessment literacy for external examiners

The quality assurance ‘regime’ that spans the higher education sector internationally is underpinned by a number of unchallenged assumptions. Nowhere is this more apparent than within the external examiner system in the UK, an instrument for the professional self-regulation of higher education. One such assumption is that external examiners are assessment literate. Within higher education assessment literacy is a concept in its infancy, but one that has the capacity to reverse the deterioration of confidence in academic standards. Whilst the concept is becoming integrated into the sectorial vernacular, its fluid and negotiated nature is under-conceptualised. The primary aim of this article lies in investigating the extent of external examiners’ assessment literacy and to use this as a base to initiate a discussion surrounding the development of a shared discourse of assessment literacy, thereby providing a tool for greater conceptualisation.

Exams as Learning Tools: A Comparison of Traditional and Collaborative Assessment in Higher Education

Exams are increasingly being used as learning tools in the form of collaborative assessments as opposed to their traditional use as a summative assessment tool for verifying individual student learning. Despite the growing popularity of collaborative assessments, few studies test the differential effects of collaborative assessments (versus traditional assessments) on student learning. This paper analyzes 16 empirical studies from various disciplines and investigates the extent to which collaborative assessments improve student learning. The paper further provides recommendations and improved practices for instructors interested in using collaborative assessment in their classroom.

Academics’ Perceptions on Quality in Higher Education Shaping Key Performance Indicators

Institutions in higher education (HE) continuously strive to develop and deliver impactful educational programs. At the same time, they should continue to fulfill their mission to educate students in basic applied subjects and in parallel respond to the need to equip students with new skills. For this reason, higher education institutions (HEI) perform periodical curricular reviews adhering to internal and external quality assurance systems. The subsequent curricular reforms are of a transformative nature, preparing graduates to tackle the challenges of globalization, unemployment and vanishing professions. For these reforms to lead to sustainable curricula, the integration of quality into educational programs is instrumental. A suggested way of achieving a transformative stance is to provide the context for the application and diffusion of quality metrics in teaching and learning. This research intends to provide a discussion of key performance indicators (KPIs) related to quality. This paper presents the second round of qualitative interviews with higher education administrators and professors as a promising vehicle for advancing towards the formulation of KPIs based on their understanding of the different independent dimensions of the quality construct. These KPIs will provide valuable insights into improving teaching, learning and assessment and will eventually lead to sustainable curricula. Research findings outline the significance of the time invested to design and update a course, indicate that technology-enhanced learning solutions are perceived as key quality drivers, and point out the need to align courses with industry requirements and real-world problems. Additionally, findings indicate that the quality and impact of teaching and learning is promoted by the multi/inter-disciplinary character of a course, the engagement of students in interactive discussions and student research as part of summative assessment. The main contribution of this research is an analytic discussion of perceptions of higher education administrators and professors about quality, leading to a significant enrichment of the relevant literature. A set of innovative generic KPIs which can be used in multidimensional quality assessment in higher education is eventually proposed.

Soft Skill Assessment in Higher Education

Soft skills are defined as socio-emotional abilities, important for personal development, social participation, academic and work achievement, and are ideally opposite to specific technical skills. University is today called to adapt to the demands of a complex and mutable labour market, where it is important to support the graduates’ employability and to prepare future professionals who possess, in addition to technical skills, also soft skills. The University of Turin has introduced a theoretical and methodological reflection about soft skills’assessment and development in its students, through the Passport.Unito Project. According to international literature, a model of 12 soft skills was set up (Bennett et al., 1999; Heckman & Kautz, 2016): area of task (problem solving and decision making, time and space management, adoption of strategies adequate in tackling the task); area of the self (self-enhancement, emotional self-regulation, enterprise); motivational area (goal orientation, causal attribution, resilience); area of the interpersonal relationships (teamwork, communication, conflict management). The Project considers the development of a soft skills self-assessment tool (PassporTest), aimed at providing a description of the level of the different soft skills in the model. In this study are presented the validation data (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, reliability, validity) and the results of a first survey on a large sample of students from different University degree programs (N = 1048).

La evaluación de los aprendizajes académicos en la licenciatura en educación especial de la Universidad de Antioquia

La Evaluación de los Aprendizajes Académicos es un deber y reto para todos los programas de Educación Superior, puesto que garantiza la calidad, pertinencia y actualidad de éstos. Así pues, la Licenciatura en Educación Especial de la Universidad de Antioquia, comprometida no sólo con los sujetos implicados en el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje, sino también con la institución universitaria y la sociedad, está llevando a cabo un proceso de investigación evaluativa, con el propósito de mejorar la calidad de la propuesta formativa de los maestros en Educación Especial.

Adaptation of Medical Students During Clinical Training: Effects of Holistic Preclinical Education on Clerkship Performance

Theory: Taiwan’s medical undergraduate program at a university or medical center is a continuation of 12 years of compulsory citizenship education rooted in holistic philosophies. Students acquire both technical knowledge and nontechnical attributes, which are necessary for success in further work and life. The early clinical learning experiences of medical students are primarily acquired through clerkships. These clerkships require medical students to apply and extend what they learned during their preclinical education; however, previous studies have explored this issue through examining fragmentary factors such as preclinical course grades and traits but not undertaking comprehensive, whole-person investigations. Hypotheses: To account for the potential benefits of a holistic approach in medical students’ learning, we propose three hypotheses: Medical students’ preclinical performance on Taiwan’s technical and nontechnical higher education assessments are positively associated with their clinical competence (Hypothesis 1) and psychological well-being (Hypothesis 2) during clerkships, and medical students’ psychological well-being during clerkships is positively associated with their clinical competence (Hypothesis 3). Method: We studied a cohort of 65 medical students engaged in clerkships from September 2013 to April 2015. Their preclinical technical knowledge scores—formal curricular grades received from course instructors—were obtained from their medical school’s archival dataset. Their nontechnical attributes—moral and social performance scores received from student mentors and physical performance scores received from course instructors—were also obtained from the school’s archival data set. The medical students’ competence in their 2-year clinical clerkships was measured using the objective structured clinical examination scores from the end of both clerkship years. The medical students’ psychological well-being during their 2-year clerkships was measured according to burnout level, which was determined using routine online surveys that employed validated, structured, and self-administered questionnaires at each specialty rotation. Multiple regressions and linear mixed-effects model were employed for statistical analysis. Results: Our study revealed that higher preclinical technical knowledge predicted superior clinical competence and a higher level of burnout during clerkships. By contrast, higher preclinical nontechnical attributes (i.e., higher preclinical moral, social, and physical performance) predicted lower level of burnout. However, no relationship was discovered between clerkship burnout and the clinical competence of the medical students. Conclusions: Our study verified the value of a holistic education that encompasses both technical knowledge and nontechnical attributes during the preclinical learning stage for medical students. Our findings can serve as a reference for medical educators designing preclinical educational programs for medical students.

Student-generated video creation for assessment: can it transform assessment within Higher Education?

Abstract Student-generated video creation assessments are an innovative and emerging form of assessment in higher education. Academic staff may be understandably reluctant to transform assessment practices without robust evidence of the benefits and rationale for doing so and some guidance regarding how to do so successfully. A systematic approach to searching the literature was conducted to identify relevant resources, which generated key documents, authors and internet sources which were thematically analysed. This comprehensive critical synthesis of literature is presented here under the headings of findings from literature, relevance of digital capabilities, understanding the influence of local context and resources, and pedagogical considerations. Student-generated video creation for assessment is shown to have several benefits, notably in supporting development of digital and communication skills relevant to today’s world and in enhancing learning. As an emerging innovation within assessment, intentionally planning and supporting a change management process with both students and staff is required. The importance of alignment to learning outcomes, context and resources, choice of video format to desired skills development, and to relevance beyond graduation is emphasised for video creation in assessment to be used successfully. Video creation for assessment is likely to grow in popularity and it is hoped the evidence of benefits, rationale and guidance as to how to do this effectively presented here will support this transformation. Further research to consider video creation for assessment with individuals rather than collaborative group assessments, and to establish academic rigour and equivalence would be beneficial.

The Evaluation of Learning Assessment in Higher Education: from the perception of students to the ideal evaluation

Pedagogical practices in higher education have been experiencing important changes, most of which are in line with the principles of the Bologna Reform. The new learning methodologies seem to have prompted different procedures in the evaluation process. The programs were redesigned to respond to an environment, which is ever more competitive. As a result, the ideas of excellence and efficiency embody the objectives of teaching and the result of evaluation of students came to be regarded as a fundamental tool in the selection process and visibility. This study aims at analyzing in-depth the experiences of evaluation of undergraduate students (1st cycle) and graduate students (2nd cycle) in two different periods: the first covering for the years of 2008 and 2009 and the second for 2016 and 2017. These periods are two important milestones in the implementation of the Bologna Declaration because they mirror the beginning and the progress of the Bologna Reform. This study does also seek to identify the reasons, which enshrine the perceptions of evaluation experiences and the meaning of the ideal model of evaluation. Although the sensitivity/uneasiness does persist in the evaluation perception, this study's results seem to be rather relevant.

Surveying the current landscape of assessment structures and resources in US schools and colleges of pharmacy

IntroductionExpectations for assessment in higher education have increased in recent decades, prompting institutions to invest additional resources in this area. This study aimed to determine the resources, structure, and perception of assessment resources in United States schools and colleges of pharmacy (S/COPs). MethodsAssessment personnel in S/COPs were surveyed electronically. Information collected included S/COP demographics, composition of assessment positions, experience and training of assessment personnel, and structure and responsibilities of committees engaged in assessment. Respondents’ perception of their S/COPs having sufficient assessment personnel, recent changes in assessment, and the factors that prompted assessment changes were also surveyed. ResultsRespondents included individuals from 113 S/COPs (84% response rate). Most S/COPs had 1–2 assessment positions and 1–2 assessment-related committees. The most common assessment position titles were assistant/associate dean, director, coordinator/specialist, and administrative assistant. Dean-level administrators typically had worked in assessment the longest, whereas directors were more likely to have formal assessment training. Most respondents (75%) agreed they had sufficient assessment personnel to meet the 2007 Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education Standards. Nearly two-thirds of respondents agreed they had sufficient personnel to meet the 2016 Standards and support their current assessment plan/process. Most S/COPs had a formal assessment committee (93%) and an average of two committees overseeing assessment. ConclusionMost S/COPs reported having sufficient resources to support assessment activities. Although there were some consistent themes, there does not appear to be a single model for structuring assessment resources or committees. Effectiveness of various assessment structures represents an area for future research.