What is it?
Students are given a choice in the assessment questions or methods used for a module. For example, students may be able to pick a certain number of questions for an exam, choose from a number of case studies to analyse for a report or choose to submit a video lab report instead of a written one.
Assessments must still assess the learning objectives for the module, which means either allowing students to pick from a pre-curated list of possible assessment options – in the example of a choice of questions on an exam – or the tutor must be sure that a proposed alternative assessment still meets the learning objectives.
What are the advantages?
Having a choice in assessment can make students take more ownership of their assessment and develop an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses in assessment. Students may tailor their assessment choices towards areas of the module they find more interesting and towards assessment methods that they feel will help them achieve as good a grade as possible.
Students can also be disadvantaged by certain assessment methods without necessarily having a learning contract in place to address that disadvantage, for example students with English as a Second or Other Language may struggle with essay type assignments. Allowing a choice of assessment can help with decolonising the curriculum and ensuring that our obligations towards meeting student needs are met.
What are the potential pitfalls?
Being presented with total freedom to make decisions can be stressful. Students should be presented with a list of options to choose from, where possible, rather than having to design their own assessments from scratch. Where possible, a portfolio of work from other students in previous years could be made available to give examples of different choices.
Students may not have developed the metacognitive skills needed to know which forms of assessment they are strong or weak in and may shy away from unfamiliar choices. Using a range of formative assessment methods throughout the module and course can help students make more informed choices about their strengths and weaknesses.
Some students may not have access to resources, equipment, etc needed for some choices, meaning their choices are constrained.
How to implement assessment choice.
It’s essential that all assessment options allow students to meet the learning objectives for the module, which means that for some modules it may not be possible to offer a choice in assessment. For example, if one of the learning objectives for the module is to be able to complete a standard type of report used in your industry then completing that report will be an essential part of your assessment. However, most modules do not have a learning objective that dictates an assessment choice.
Different assessment choices must be the same amount of work for students. If the choice given is in choice of question, for example, or choice of essay title then the word count, amount of marks available and so forth should be the same for all options and questions should be of the same “depth” or “complexity”. More care needs to be taken if there is a choice of assessment method. Within Sheffield Hallam’s Principles and Policies for Assessment there is an assessment tariff which can be useful in ensuring assessment choices are equally weighted. The guidance is that six minutes of presentation is equivalent to 1,000 words of word count, so students submitting a video discussion in place of a 2,000 word written assignment, for example, would be expected to produce around 12 minutes of content. This can be pro-rata if desired – a 1,000 word assignment could be a three minute video and 500 words accompanying it.
The student’s perception of fairness is equally important as an objective level of fairness between the options. Where possible you should use the same marking criteria for all options and should be careful not to penalise students for an assessment choice in way that isn’t applicable for other assessment choices – a poorly designed PowerPoint presentation should not be penalised more or less harshly than a poorly laid out written assignment.
