1. Assessment in the Faculty of Development and Society Catherine Barnard (Department of the Built Environment) Jack Clare (Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics)

2. Introduction • What we did: • Collected around 500 questionnaires across the Faculty • Produced departmental reports • Met to collate all of the information • Aims: • What are the positive and negative aspects of assessment? • What assessments help, and which do not? • Overall, do assessments aid learning? • What could be changed to make assessment more positive?

3. Quotes “I can generally do what I want for two months, then do the assignment in one night” - Sociology “The assignment was too easy and much like GCSE Business Studies” – Real Estate “Feedback is poor: ‘you have drawn and presented your work good but I think somewhere in your drawings something might not quite be right but I don’t know what it is’” – Architecture

4. Quotes “There is too much work all at once. Times with no work then lots” – Architecture “When given feedback which says 'brilliant, excellent', with no objections whatsoever, I still only get 70%, and I would like to know what can be done to achieve a better mark” – Real Estate “Our group spent more time worrying about presenting in front of people, and whether we were going to look stupid than actually focussing on the quality of work and information” – Stage and Screen

5. Positive & Negative Aspects Positive • Variety of assignments • Challenging • Development of skills • Regular assessment • Support • Group work • Group work • Feedback • Unclear briefs • Irrelevance • Inconsistency between tutors • Bunching of deadlines Negative

6. Assessments that helped... Essays Assignments that require further reading Assignments with links to the profession Assignments that build year on year Assignments with links to other modules

7. Assessments that didn't help... Assignments that haven’t been planned well ‘Cross-course’ assessments Irrelevant assignments Easy assignments

8. Overall, does assessment aid learning? • Yes, particularly when… • It’s interesting • New skills are learnt • It is relevant and not set ‘because the tutor has to set it’ • It will be useful in employment

9. Going Forward:Advice and Action Points Marking standards should be uniform across the Faculty Make all tutors responsible for support More frequent, smaller pieces of assessment Spread out deadlines, with tutors liaising with each other Weight modules in favour of exams not coursework Greater constructive criticism in feedback Look at degree classification Choice Individual and cross course preferences in assessment