The FAST Project

The FAST project was designed to change assessment so as to support student learning more effectively. The project methodology involved a two year cycle of diagnostic evaluation, innovation, and evaluation of change followed by one year of wider dissemination to science teachers in other institutions.

FAST was a collaboration between The Open University (OU) and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) - it included work on a number of OU and SHU courses/modules spread across the Sciences. Two distinctly different models of teaching delivery and assessment were involved. The OU is distance learning institution where teaching is text-based and feedback is written. At SHU, teaching is face-to-face and feedback to students is both written and oral.

Eleven conditions under which assessment supports student learning were identified (Gibbs and Simpson, 2004-05): They relate to:

• The quantity, distribution and quality and level of student effort;
• The quantity, timing and quality of feedback; and
• The student response to that feedback.

The project aimed to address these conditions by implementing changes to assessment design on Science courses and to study the impact of these changes on students’ responses and study patterns.

One major outcome of the project was the generation of Case Studies. To support this the FAST project provided funding for development projects from other institutions; to analyse and, if appropriate, redesign their formative assessment processes. The Case Studies section of this website provides outcomes of this activity.

Another outcome was the establishment of a single ‘Special Interest Group’, looking at formative assessment in science. Serving both the Biosciences and Physical Sciences Subject Centres, its aim was to bring interested teachers together, to locate and develop the case studies, to undertake workshops and provide consultancy for other departments.