Changing assessment may also require changes to teaching. Assessment review can highlight deficits or excellence in teaching and it can also indicate that learning outcomes may be over-ambitious or unrealistic. It is important to ensure that assessment is aligned with teaching as well as unit and program learning outcomes and professional requirements. Sometimes those responsible for the assessment design are not responsible for the teaching. Good communication across faculty is critical to ensure assessment is planned for and structured appropriately.
Assessment considerations:
- How do the assessment and teaching currently align? Are any changes required?
- How will changes to assessment design affect changes to teaching?
- Who needs to know about any necessary changes to teaching?
- How will you determine if the changes to the teaching are influencing how learners perform in assessments?
Also refer to:
Context  > Learning environment
Outcomes > Unit/module learning outcomes
Outcomes > Overall program learning outcomes
Feedback processes > Influence of learner performance
Interactions > Â Assessment improvement
Educator experiences
Adjusting assumptions
I asked my students to do a task that requires them to read a particular type of research study, and then come up with implications for practice. I’d supposed that reading research would be assumed knowledge for these postgrads but I was wrong, and it meant that the task was very challenging in ways that weren’t really contributing to the learning I wanted. I made a change to the teaching the following year where I provide examples of me reading these studies and the implications for my own practice, which they’ve said help a lot. – Education lecturer
Adjusting teaching
I was teaching a unit with a very large group project, and it became clear pretty quickly that we weren’t allowing enough time for the groups to work together in class. Even worse, we hadn’t really taught about doing this sort of project. So before the next time I taught it I had to go and learn more about group project work myself, which led me to incorporate short catch-ups every week, as well as some discussions about how groups work. The tutors were really on board with this, as they were professionals with lots of experience managing this stuff in industry. – Sustainability lecturer
Resource:
The University of Technology Sydney Assessment Futures site has a section about Reviewing assessment tasks www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/teaching-and-learning/assessment-futures/designing-and-redesigning-assessmen-3
