Assignment design 180213

Editor's Notes

• #2: This presentation is designed to assist staff in institutions in producing good-quality assignment briefs for students who are working at level 7. The term assignment will be used as an abbreviation for assignment brief. The presentation can be used by external quality assurers (EQA) to support institutions in producing good quality assignments. There is a set of supporting materials that can be used to illustrate the points made in the presentation.
• #3: Identify the objectives of the presentation stressing that at the conclusion of the presentation that delegates will have the understanding that allows them to produce a set of good quality assignments for use with their students on any vocational programme where there are learning outcomes and assessment criteria identified in the qualification specifications.Identify the practical nature of the presentation.On completion of the presentation and by by adopting the guidance the awarding organisation should agree through the EQA that the assignments are of a sound quality.
• #4: Explain that in designing assignments a good starting point is to look at assessment criteria and groups of assessment criteria that can be logically linked. Copying and pasting assessment criteria from the specification into a blank assignment brief is a possible and reasonable starting point. This is because the assessment criteria can be used as a basis for formulating questions / tasks.Explain that in some centres students have just been given the assessment criteria as they appear in the specification as the tasks to complete. It is very difficult for internal quality assurers and the external quality assurers to argue that the wrong questions had been set. It is however an unimaginative approach to assessing students and really ought to be avoided.Ask delegates to think of a suitable case or problem to which they can apply the requirements of the assessment criteria. In many units examples can be taken from topics that are currently discussed in newspapers and in broadcasts. For example a marketing unit can consider the performance of supermarket chains because these organisations are significantly large and advertise and report on a regular basis. News of their successes and failures are regularly reported not just in the business press but also on the mainstream news. In addition most students will come into contact with some aspects of marketing as they read and see advertisements for supermarket promotions and buy goods in store. Some may work part time in one of the supermarket chains so can experience marketing effectiveness at first hand.Identify how tasks can be re-worded slightly to reflect the nature of the case. If for example a criterion asks students to “assess the promotional mix used by a selected organisation” then the task can be re-worked to read “assess the promotional mix used by J Sainsbury plc in its current marketing campaign”. This does not undermine the thrust the question but it does provide a context. It has the additional benefit that the response will not be found in a textbook or on a website and therefore cannot be copied from those sources into an answer.
• #5: Discuss with delegates the suitability of case studies and problems. The case study needs to be up-to-date. It also needs to relate to the learning outcomes. Students must have access to relevant data to help them analyse the problem that they have been given. In some situations there may not be sufficient information or access may be denied. For example, a business which is incorporated in the United States is not required to report its results in the United Kingdom. Similarly private limited companies are not required to put information into the public domain. Students cannot be expected to pay the fee for a Companies House search which in any case will probably reveal only minimal amounts of useable information.Remind staff that they may need to adjust case studies to provide sufficient material but also to supply relevant material to students. There is no reason why “imagined” information cannot be added if it adds to the suitability of the case study provided the information is not too fanciful.Ask delegates to streamline tasks by combining associated criteria into a single task. Provide examples of how to do this. This can often be done by merging two criteria or by chaining them together.
• #6: Producing the complete assignment involves wrapping the case study and questions into package. The front part of the package or wrapper is often referred to as the assignment front sheet. It normally uses a house style in presenting the assignment to students. The front sheet will identify information about the unit, the outcomes and the criteria being assessed and will also have space to show the results of marking the assignment. The last part of the package or wrapper provides guidance to students. Guidance is not used to make the assessment decisions. It is used to tell students how they should do their work. For example if the assessor wishes the work to be word processed then that should be in the guidance. If the student does not work process the work then the assessor should not fail the work on those grounds. Word processing work is not a requirement of the assessment criteria. The sanction the tutor can use is to refuse to mark the work. Refusing to mark work is not the same as failing. The tutor just asks for the student to redo the work using word processing and once the student has done this tutor will accept the work and mark it against the criteria.Identify that assignments are often not perfect and there is no problem with recognising that this is the case and adjusting the assignment ready for the next time that it is used.
• #7: Remind delegates about the purpose of assignments. At this stage it is also worth discussing how outcomes can be combined from different units to produce an integrated assignment because an approach such as this is a better reflection of how problems occur in the real world. The issue to be considered is the tracking of the outcomes and the assessment criteria in an integrated assignment. A good plan will ensure complete coverage of outcome criteria from multiple units.
• #9: Identify the requirements of the level 7 as defined in the NICATS (Northern Ireland Credit Accumulation Transfer System).
• #10: Identify the three dimensions that are defined by NICATS for level 7. The first of these relates to intellectual skills and attributes. Give examples from your own vocational expertise of what is meant by displaying mastery and demonstrating expertise in specialised research skills.
• #11: Explain what level 7 processes are and give examples from your own experience as an assessor and / or as an internal quality assurer and / or an external quality assurer.
• #12: At work someone who is working at level 7 would be entirely responsible for carrying out tasks, ensuring the quality of the work they carry out and will have responsibility for managing the work of others.
• #14: Identify the range of assessment methods that can be used in an assignment and refer delegates back to the points made in an earlier slide about the importance of selecting appropriate methods of assessment.
• #15: Explain these general points about assignments and mention the acceptability of using examination assignments.
• #16: Explain the additional benefits that assignments can offer students in terms of helping to improve their capacity to learn and to helping them to remain committed to their program of study.
• #17: Run through the checklists identifying features good assignments and the benefits of using good assignments. Mention how using house style looks professional and reflects positively on the centre. A house style gets students used to how work is going to be presented to them. It speeds up the internal quality assurance process. It speeds up the external quality assurance process. If the assignments all look the same they are much easier to work with when compared to having a multiplicity of assignment styles used within one centre. One style should be applied to the individual qualification but it's also good practice for the same style to be applied across qualifications from different vocational areas. Some of the points reiterate the considerations discussed when designing assignments in the earlier activities.Explain the importance of ensuring that the language used in assignments is accessible because it is written because it uses terms clearly and unambiguously. Using confusing language is not sign of work being at level 7. Word has an option to check the readability scores of any text produced using that particular software package.
• #18: Assignments should require students to apply their knowledge to problems that say have not previously considered. It is useful to use stimulus material is up-to-date and this material should readily be found by tutors using their subject expertise.When setting tasks it is important that students be given a suitable role. It is unlikely that a student would be the marketing manager for a large supermarket so asking them to do work that assumes they perform such a job is not appropriate. However if a student has been appointed as a marketing manager to a much smaller organisation that wants to improve its marketing by considering the activities of a large supermarket then that would be a reasonable approach to adopt and a suitable role to allocate.Work done by students should be presented suitable business formats. In other words it is unlikely to be in the form of an essay. But it maybe in form of a report, a PowerPoint presentation supported by notes, a discussion or a research paper.
• #20: The responsibilities of assessors are now defined and every assessor working with vocational qualifications within the Qualification and Credit Framework has specified responsibilities which have an associated knowledge requirement. The first responsibility is of course assessing the students’ work.Identify to delegates the meaning of valid assessment, fair assessment and reliable assessment with examples. Sometimes the point can be made strongly by using examples of assessment of practical activitiesDiscuss the significance of choosing appropriate assessment methods. Take an example from a practical activity such as driving a forklift truck or making a food dish and explain that if the requirement is to assess practical work then it is not appropriate to use an essay to establish whether someone can drive a forklift truck or prepare food dish. Mention the planning assessment will be dealt with later in presentation but that it is important to ensure that assessment covers the learning outcomes and assessment criteria within each unit.Explain what is meant by holistic approaches to assessment but identify that at this stage simple assessment building blocks will be put into place before consideration is given to a more holistic and integrated approach.Explain the importance of giving feedback to students to help them improve their work. Advice such as “try harder” is not particularly useful to students particularly if they feel they have tried hard in order to produce their work. The expertise of the tutor should be used to guide students into working towards producing better work for answers.Mention involving other interested parties and explain that this is more significant in other types of qualification usually with a practical component or one that involves workplace assessment.Explain the issues associated with carrying out good quality assessment. There are some issues associated with assessing practical work because it takes up more time than marking a set of essays produced by a group of students. Assessors also need to know about the content of centre policies that affect assessment. For example how does the centre approach special consideration and reasonable adjustment or equality of opportunity in its assessment practice.Assessors have to keep track of assessment decisions. Explain that assessors have to keep track of assessment decisions and that it involves identifying that learning outcomes have been met once work has been judged against the assessment criteria. In addition to tracking assessment decisions within the unit it is also necessary to consolidate assessment records so that the picture of student achievement across the programme is available for scrutiny. Explain what is meant by standardisation. There is a range of methods that can be used such as double marking, blind marking and marking against a standardised response. Consistent practice is an aspect of good practice.