Research Project
Rethinking Assessment Practices in Higher Education
Project Background
Moving from traditional assessment practices towards diverse, dynamic, and authentic-oriented assessments in higher education continues to remain a challenge. This barrier may be due to resistance to change traditional assessment practices. Assessment literacy can play an important role in addressing such resistance. However, current assessment literacy tools predominantly focus on traditional conceptions of assessment.
This project aims to measure assessment literacy related to contemporary assessment practices; identify potential barriers to implementation of effective assessment among educators; and develop materials for a professional education masterclass on implementing effective assessment in health teaching.
Using a novel friendship approachLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, we will explore lived experiences of Monash-Warwick pairs of educators and students related to assessment literacy and practices. This data will further enrich information in relation to assessment literacy that we will gather via a survey. Thus, the voices and experiences of staff and students will inform the novel assessment materials that we will generate and they will constitute the backbone of the masterclass.
This Monash-Warwick AllianceLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window funded project will have direct impacts on teaching practice and related policy in the public health domain and beyond.
Take part in the project if you are a staff member:
Take part in the project if you are a student:
Project Aims and Objectives
The overarching aim of the project is to describe the current state of evidence and practice related to assessment, including the barriers to its effective implementation among higher education educators. Considering the existing Monash-Warwick networks between health educators, our focus population will be public health educators.
The overarching aim will be addressed via the following project objectives:
Objective 1
To evaluate the current state of evidence related to assessment literacy and practice among educators, and the extent to which COVID-19 exerted any influence.
Taking part in the study
The project will include students and staff from public health courses from across the range of departments in the university where public health courses are delivered.
The mixed methodology of this project means we are using dialogues and a survey to collect data on your views around assessment practices.
If you are a member of staff at the Monash and Warwick Universities, where you are teaching and/or providing assessment on a health course and you would like to take part in this study, please read the explanatory statement, and register - both explanatory statement and the registration form can be found via the registration pageLink opens in a new window. Once you have registered, you will then be contacted by a research officer who will email a consent form. For more information or enquiries contact us at: mw-alliance.assess@warwick.ac.uk or email Tania Villanueva Cabello Research Project officer at Tania.Villanueva-Cabello@warwick.ac.uk.