There has been a remarkable growth of interest in the assessment of student learning and its relation to the process of learning in higher education over the past ten years. This interest has been expressed in various ways – through large scale research projects, international conferences, the development of principles of assessment that supports learning, a growing awareness of the role of feedback as an integral part of the learning process, and the publication of exemplary assessment practices. At the same time, more limited attention has been given to the underlying nature of assessment, to the concerns that arise when assessment is construed as a measurement process, and to the role of judgement in evaluating the quality of students’ work. It is now timely to take stock of some of the critical concepts that underpin our understanding of the multifarious relationships between assessment and learning, and to explicate the nature of assessment as judgement. Despite the recent growth in interest noted above, assessment in higher education remains under-conceptualized. This book seeks to make a significant contribution to conceptualizing key aspects of assessment, learning and judgement.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Despite the broad engagement of higher education institutions in most social sectors, limited thinking and hyper-individualistic approaches have dominated discussions of their value to society. Advocating a more rigorous and comprehensive approach, this insightful book discusses the broad range of contributions made by higher education and the many issues entailed in theorising, observing, measuring and evaluating those contributions.

The book makes an important contribution to the discourse on student experience in higher education. The book includes chapters that cover important aspects of the 21st century student experience. Chapters cover issues such as: new trends and insights on the student experience; the changing profile of students in higher education and performance measures used to assess the quality of student experience, institutional approaches in engaging students, using student voice to improve the quality of teaching, COVID-19 and its impact on international students, innovative partnerships between students and academic staff, student feedback and raising academic standards, the increased use of qualitative data in gaining insights into student experience, the use of innovative learning spaces and technology to enhance the learning experience, and the potentially disrupting nature of student feedback and its impact on the health and wellbeing of academic staff, and the increased use of social media reviews by students.

Contextualising why assessment is still the single most important factor affecting student learning in higher education, this second edition of Innovative Assessment in Higher Education: A Handbook for Academic Practitioners offers a critical discourse about the value of assessment for learning alongside practical suggestions about how to enhance the student experience of assessment and feedback. With 17 new chapters this edition: contextualises assessment within the current higher education landscape; explores how student, parent and government expectations impact on assessment design; presents case studies on how to develop, incorporate and assess employability skills; reviews how technology and social media can be used to enhance assessment and feedback; provides examples and critical review of the use and development of feedback practices and how to assess professional, creative and performance-based subjects; offers guidance on how to develop assessment that is inclusive and enables all students to advance their potential. Bridging the gap between theory and the practical elements of assessment, Innovative Assessment in Higher Education: A Handbook for Academic Practitioners is an essential resource for busy academics looking to make a tangible difference to their academic practice and their students’ learning. This practical and accessible guide will aid both new and more experienced practitioners looking to learn more about how and why assessment in higher education can make such a difference to student learning.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of current, innovative approaches to assessing generic and domain-specific learning outcomes in higher education at both national and international levels. It discusses the most significant initiatives over the past decade to develop objective, valid, and reliable assessment tools and presents state-of-the-art procedures to adapt and validate them for use in other countries. The authors highlight key conceptual and methodological challenges connected with intra-national and cross-national assessment of learning outcomes in higher education; introduce novel approaches to improving assessment, evaluation, testing, and measurement practices; and offer exemplary implementation frameworks. Further, they examine the results of and lessons learned from various recent, world-renowned research programs and feasibility studies, and present results from their own studies to provide new insights into how to draw valid conclusions about learning outcomes achieved in various contexts.

Provides comprehensive practical guidance on managing and improving assessment within higher education.

Teachers spend much of their time on assessment, yet many higher education teachers have received minimal guidance on assessment design and marking. This means assessment can often be a source of stress and frustration. Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education aims to solve these problems. Offering a concise overview of assessment theory and practice, this guide provides teachers with the help they need.