11552 version 6

Title: Design and evaluate assessment materials

Level: 5 Credits: 10

Purpose: This standard is for those who wish to become a professional adult and tertiary teaching practitioners.

People credited with this unit standard are able to design and evaluate assessment materials. This unit standard has been developed primarily for assessment within programmes leading to the New Zealand Certificate in Adult and Tertiary Teaching (Level 5) [Ref: 2993].

Classification: Generic Education and Training > Assessment of Learning

Available grade: Achieved

Entry information

Recommended Skills and knowledge:

The New Zealand Certificate in Adult and Tertiary Teaching (Level 4) [Ref: 2746] provides underpinning skills and knowledge and it is recommended that candidates hold that qualification or are able to demonstrate equivalent knowledge and skills before assessment against this standard.

Outcomes and evidence requirements

1. Diagnostic,
2. Formative,
3. Summative.)

1. Validity,
2. Currency,
3. Consistency,
4. Reliability,
5. Authenticity,
6. Sufficiency,
7. Fairness.)

1. Naturally occurring assessments;
2. Portfolio;
3. Online assessments;
4. Observation,
5. Written or oral questions;
6. Attestation;
7. Simulation.)

Good assessment practice

The unit standard specifies that the components of good assessment practice are validity, currency, consistency, reliability, authenticity, sufficiency and fairness.

Study these definitions of these seven factors.

1. Validity: Is the central concept in evaluating the quality of assessment outcomes. Assessment should measure what it claims to measure and there must be a close fit between the assessment activity and the learning outcome(s). This would involve the interpretation and supporting evidence collected from all stages of the assessment process.
2. Currency: This principle is about being up to date. While some skills have changed little, many are subject to social and technological changes. Three years is generally accepted as a minimum time when assessments can be termed ‘current’ and included for use against qualification accumulation.
3. Consistency in assessment involves the achievement of comparable outcomes. An assessment process would be considered to deliver consistent outcomes if assessors assessing learners against the same specification of outcomes in different contexts made comparable assessment decisions, or if assessor decisions were consistent with the required standard across a number of assessors or assessing organisations. Consistency is the requirement for confidence in an assessment process, to verify that assessment judgments are credible and defensible. The challenge for assessment writers dealing with numbers of assessors with differing experiential backgrounds across different contexts is to implement measures that structure, or perhaps calibrate, their judgments so that in the face of uncertainty they are basing their decisions on common comparators.
4. Reliability: The assessment result should be replicable and consistent either under different circumstances, with a different Assessor or over time. Policies and practices in quality assurance and standardisation should all be devised to ensure reliability and consistency. Good practice would be to retain samples of assessed work to monitor standards over time. Reliability can be seen to be a direct consequence of validity in practice. Reliability will reflect the quality assurance and guidance process in order to minimise human inconsistencies.
5. Authenticity: All assessment activity which provides evidence of achievement for the award of credit must have processes in place to ensure that the achievement is authentic, i.e. the learner’s own work. Internal and external quality assurance should be capable of scrutinising the circumstances in which evidence is produced. Assessments must provide clear guidelines on plagiarism and malpractice.
6. Sufficiency: Assessment must fit the learning outcomes and be appropriate for the form of assessment. It must also be appropriate to the credit value (e.g. a 5000-word essay is not appropriate for a 1 credit unit). They must also reflect any sufficiency statements stipulated in the standard (e.g. Assessment should include a minimum of two texts)
7. Fairness: Assessment methods should not raise barriers to the demonstration of achievement. Assessment must be fit for the learner, the learning and the level. Assessment should be based on learners’ needs and should take into account equality and diversity issues. Assessment methods must not exclude individuals from demonstrating the learning outcomes and should be free from bias.

Obtain a module/prescription assessment from your department (preferably one that you are not familiar with) and analyse whether it would enable ‘good assessment practice’ in terms of these factors to take place. Write notes on your findings.