Author Archives: Sally Jordan

The multiple limitations of assessment criteria

Sadly, I don’t get as much time as I used to in which to think about assessment. So last Wednesday was a particular joy. First thing in the morning I participated in a fantastic webinar that marked the start of … Continue reading

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So what is assessment really about?

I’ve just returned home from Barcelona, where I was visiting the eLearn Center at the Universitat Oberto de Catalunya (UOC), the Open University of Catalonia. UOC has an “educational model” which is similar to that used at the UK Open … Continue reading

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Gender differences on force concept inventory

Hot on the heals of my last post, reporting on work which did not provide support for the previous finding that men and women perform differentially on different types of assessed tasks, I bring you a very interesting finding from … Continue reading

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More on the gender differences on our level 2 physics module

I’m returning to the topic raised here. To summarise, significantly fewer women than men study our level 2 (FHEQ L5) physics module S207 and, more worryingly, those who do are significantly less likely to complete it, and those who complete it … Continue reading

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Reflections on AHEC 2: Assessment transparency

I should start by saying that Tim Hunt’s summary of last week’s Assessment in Higher Education Conference is excellent, so I don’t know why I’m bothering! Seriously, we went to some different sessions, in particular Tim went to many more … Continue reading

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Reflections on AHEC 1: remembering that students are individuals

I’ve been at the 5th Assessment in Higher Education Conference, now truly international, and a superb conference. As in 2013, the conference was at Maple House in Birmingham.  With 200 delegates we filled the venue completely, but it was a … Continue reading

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Performance on interactive computer-marked questions – gender differences

We have become aware of a significant difference in outcome for male and female students on our level 2 physics module; around 25% of the students on the module are women, and they are both less likely to complete the module … Continue reading

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Pixelated assessment

I’m indebted to the colleague who told me about Cees van der Vleuten’s keynote at the EARLI Assessment SIG Conference in Madrid last August (http://www.earli-sig1-conference.org/cees-van-der-vleuten.php). I should perhaps point out that I am reporting third hand, so I may have got … Continue reading

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Authentic assessment vs authentication of identity

This is a post on which I would particularly welcome comments. I am aware of the issues but distinctly lacking in solutions. A couple of years ago I posted (here) about the fact that there are a range of skills … Continue reading

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Effective feedback

“As long as we hold this image of feedback as being something that one person gives to another person to educate that person, we’ve missed the ultimate point of the feedback system…” Sound familiar? How about “Feedback as a concept … Continue reading

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