Putting feedback at the heart of assessment

Find out how to transform assessment from a grading instrument to a learning tool

Spotlight on assessment and feedback

Assessment is undergoing a makeover across higher education, away from being a mechanism by which to ‘measure’ student performance, towards becoming a useful tool that aids learning. This brings a greater focus on formative assessments that facilitate feedback and ongoing improvement for students and their lecturers throughout a course. A departure from traditional end of year exams has encouraged diverse and creative ways to assess, more closely tied to real-world skills, which reduce opportunities for cheating. Find out how academics around the world are rethinking assessment to put feedback and learning at its heart, with this collection of resources.

Assessment and feedback as an active dialogue between tutors and students

Seven steps towards enhancing assessment and feedback as a participatory, social process that supports deeper learning, by Neil Lent, Tina Harrison and Sabine Rolle

Neil Lent, Tina Harrison, Sabine Rolle

The University of Edinburgh

Feedback to support learning

Image of people learning from one another

Tactics to ensure students engage with and learn from feedback

Students often perceive feedback as criticism and fail to take on board the constructive guidance. Rebecca Lewis explains how she encourages student engagement with her feedback

Becky Lewis

University of East Anglia

Advice on delivering efficient and effective feedback that helps students learn and

Making feedback effective for your students and efficient for you

Effective feedback is vital to aid students’ learning and progress but must be managed in a way that is realistic for professors’ workloads. Loïc Plé shares his tips

Loïc Plé

IĒSEG School of Management

Working back to front, by writing feedback before students have submitted, can help when teaching large cohorts

Why you should write feedback to your students before they’ve submitted

Starting at the end seems counterintuitive, but anticipating student strengths and weaknesses and automating your responses comes into its own for large cohorts

Andy Grayson

Nottingham Trent University

Student receiving and sharing feedback

In the loop: how formative feedback supports remote teaching

Weekly snapshots of how students see their own progress can help teachers adjust teaching methods in real time. An online tool piloted at Georgia Tech has helped fill a feedback loop lost during the pandemic

Jonna Lee , Meryem Yilmaz Soylu

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

Efficient methods of marking and providing feedback

Aaron Taylor and Victoria Rafferty provide advice on how to ensure formative and summative feedback is carried out with student learning in mind

Aaron Taylor, Victoria Rafferty

Arden University

Exploring different ways to 'assess'

Advice on how to use different styles of assessment to enhance learning outcomes

Constructive use of varied assessment methods

Layal Hakim explains when and how to implement different types of assessment throughout a course in order to support learning

Layal Hakim

University of Exeter

Open-book exam

Open-book assessments: dos and don’ts that foster good practice

Exam format can affect student performance and anxiety levels. Here’s how to set an OBA that gives students their best chance to excel

Hongru Zhang

Macau University of Science and Technology

Minecraft is just one creative assessment platform for university educators

Breaking with tradition: 10 creative assessment ideas

Monica Francesca Contrino and Rocío Elizabeth Cortez Márquez suggest 10 methods for adding an imaginative twist when evaluating your students’ learning

Monica Francesca Contrino , Rocío Elizabeth Cortez Márquez

Monterrey Institute of Technology

Robot writing on a keyboard

The potential of artificial intelligence in assessment feedback

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve the way students receive assessment feedback. Elizabeth Ellis explores some of the ways in which AI can help students

Elizabeth Ellis

Arden University

Original essays written in seconds: how ‘transformers’ will change assessment

Artificial intelligence that generates original text will be both empowering and disruptive for students and higher education at large, say Mike Sharples and Rafael Pérez y Pérez

Mike Sharples , Rafael Pérez y Pérez

The Open University, Metropolitan Autonomous University

Assessments that encourage integrity

We may never stop university students cheating but we should still encourage academic integrity

Zero cheating is a pipe dream, but we still need to push academic integrity

David Rettinger and Erica Price Burns offer key points for institutions to consider when creating systems that encourage academic integrity among students

David Rettinger, Erica Price Burns

University of Mary Washington

Cheating with phone in exam

How to design low-stakes authentic assessment that promotes academic integrity

Robust assessment design is more important than ever in the battle to maintain academic integrity, say Nguyen Bui and Simon Feros

Nguyen Bui , Simon Feros

Australian National University

Advice on using unique datasets in online exams to deter cheating among students

Online exams are growing in popularity: how can they be fair and robust?

Nicholas Harmer and Alison Hill share advice on using unique datasets to deter student collusion in online exams

Nicholas Harmer, Alison Hill

University of Exeter

Students sit in a traditional written exam

Traditional exams aren’t dead – they just need to be used correctly

Knowing when to utilise traditional v authentic assessment methods – and the modern tools to build them – is a crucial part of the teacher’s role in 2022 and beyond

Beatriz Murillo Pancardo , Pedro de Jesús García Reza , Mariano Garay Peña

Monterrey Institute of Technology

I’m a Columbia student, and I don’t want my grade inflated

Normalising failure could improve students’ mental health, give them the freedom to learn more effectively and make them more resilient all at once, says Jacob Clay

Jacob Clay

Columbia University

Improving marking practices

Two tutors discussing marks on a paper

How to negotiate the politics of mark agreement between tutors

James Derounian offers thoughts on how we can unravel the tangled and contested arena of mark negotiation between university tutors

James Derounian

University of Bolton

Videos and podcasts can be useful tools for assessment

21st-century assessment: improve and update the way you evaluate

Mariana del Sol González offers initial tips and guidance on how to update assessment methods in your classroom

Mariana del Sol González

Monterrey Institute of Technology

A lecturer marking dozens of assignments

A step-by-step guide to designing marking rubrics that will save hours of time

Designing marking rubrics that provide guidance but with enough flexibility for students to demonstrate knowledge and skills in multiple ways is a difficult balancing act. Paul Moss explains how it can be done

Paul Moss

The University of Adelaide