An Introduction to Assessment

Assessment is “the process of defining, selecting, designing, collecting, analysing, interpreting, and using information to increase students’ learning and development”

 ERWIN, 1991

Assessment is a major part of any student’s academic life and shapes what they learn and how they will learn it (Biggs & Tang, 2007). Its myriad roles include: selecting, controlling, or motivating students; satisfying expectations; providing formative feedback; accountability; grading; and determining the extent of learning.

Assessment does more than allocate a grade or degree classification to students – it plays an important role in focusing their attention and, as Sainsbury & Walker (2007) observe, actually drives their learning. Gibbs (2003) states that Assessment has 6 main functions: 

1. Capturing student time and attention
2. Generating appropriate student learning activity
3. Providing timely feedback to which students pay attention
4. Helping students to internalise the discipline’s standards and notions of equality 
5. Generating marks or grades which distinguish between students or enable pass/fail decisions to be made
6. Providing evidence for others outside the course to enable them to judge the appropriateness of standards on the course