National Teaching and Learning
Change Programme
Improving teaching and learning in Adult Learning

Themes | Assessment | Developing your assessment strategy

Themes

• Introduction
• Assessment
  • Drivers for change
  • Initial assessment
  • Formative assessment
  • Summative assessment
  • Assessing learners' achievement
  • Choosing the right assessment method for the job
  • Assessment design and practice
  • Preparing for assessment
  • Developing your assessment strategy
  • Feedback
• Improving teaching and learning
• Planning learning and reviewing progress
• E-learning and e-assessment

Developing your assessment strategy

Use the following questions as the basis for your assessment strategy and then discuss the outcomes with your Subject Learning Coach and your colleagues.

1. At what points will it be appropriate to carry out formative and summative assessment during the course/programme?
2. If it's a short course or workshop, what sort of assessment process will be practical and valid?
3. Will all learners undertake assessment activities at the same time? Take account of learners progressing at different rates and learners whose attendance has been interrupted by illness. Sort out the practicalities of group management.
4. Where learners have different interests, how are you going to differentiate assessment activities to take account of this?
5. Where learners are at different levels, what assessment activities can you devise that will enable everyone to work with the appropriate level of challenge?
6. If you run a workshop, where learners work at their own pace on individual assignments, how can you design a range of assessment activities that will meet the needs of each person?
7. Where learners have limited fluency in English or have other support needs, how will you make assessment activities accessible?
8. What arrangements will you make to brief any third party or parties involved in giving judgements and feedback on how well learners are doing?
9. How will you give feedback to learners? In writing? Face-to-face? By e-mail? Will you speak to learners privately, or individually within the group, or will you discuss work collectively? How you will manage all of this?
10. Will there be a summative assessment activity that would enable learners to demonstrate their cumulative and collective learning to themselves and to each other and possibly to others?