Assessment Principles

This resource outlines key principles of quality assessment, including alignment with learning goals, fairness, scaffolding, collaboration, accessibility, and meaningful integration. Adhering to these principles helps create inclusive and impactful assessments that enhance the student learning journey.

1. Effective assessment should be constructively aligned

Aligned assessment tasks ensure that student evaluations correspond precisely with the course learning outcomes and teaching content.

Staff should aim to:

• Weight assignments according to their importance to the learning outcomes.
• Align feedback and marking criteria towards desired learning outcomes.
• Prepare students with the skills required for assessment success.

2. Effective assessment should be trustworthy and fair

A good assessment accurately reflects a student’s knowledge and skills. Select assessment tasks that capture the right types of information, under the right conditions, according to the outcomes being assessed.

Staff should aim to:

• Mark using predefined criterion or specification guides.
• Use two or more types of assessment tasks in a course.
• Secure threshold assessment tasks with adequate forms of supervision.

3. Effective assessment should be scaffolded and strategic

Sequencing assessment tasks to match achievable learning progressions while considering the task’s function in assuring program learning outcomes.

Staff should aim to:

• Provide actionable feedback to students early on in a task.
• Develop students’ ability to assess their own work and that of their peers.
• Coordinate assessment across courses to build a comprehensive view of student capabilities at key points in a program.

4. Effective assessment should be collaborative and distributed

Integrating collaborative work in assessment tasks develops students’ critical soft skills such as communication, leadership, and conflict resolution. Collaborative assessment tasks help students build relationships and make connections with peers within and outside UoN.

Staff should aim to:

• Promote opportunities for students to engage collaboratively through group tasks.
• Clarify group expectations including roles, responsibilities, and communication norms for effective group processes.
• Encourage ethical use and engagement with AI tools and services.

5.  Effective assessment  should be meaningful and integrative

Effective assessment inspires students, fuelling their ambition and motivation to create high-quality work. Students work with purpose when they can integrate prior knowledge and experiences across different subjects, contexts, and disciplines, and the real world.

Staff should aim to:

• Set open-ended challenges from real world problems.
• Progressively offer flexibility over assessment, focus, timing and evaluation.
• Use authentic forms of marking and feedback.

6. Effective assessment should be accessible and equitable

Accessible and equitable assessments accommodate diverse learning needs and provide flexibility for reasonable adjustments to ensure equitable opportunities for all students.

Staff should aim to:

• Clearly and explicitly communicate assessment criteria, expectations, and grading rubrics with consideration given to opportunities for multiple means of representation.
• Use inclusive language in all of assessment elements (descriptions, instructions, marking criterion, etc). Avoid ableist terms and phrases that may marginalise individuals with disabilities and acknowledge the diverse background and capabilities.
• Consider students’ cultural backgrounds. Culturally relevant assessments acknowledge diverse perspectives and avoid bias.

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