Assessment and Feedback

A Quick Guide to

Assessment and Feedback Rubrics

This Quick Guide shows how assessment rubrics are essential tools in university assessment design, providing a clear framework for evaluating student performance.

Assessment and feedback sit at the heart of the Ulster student experience, shaping learning, informing teaching practice, and influencing student success, confidence and progression, while also underpinning the quality, credibility and reputation of our academic provision.

What and how students learn depends to a major extent on how they think they will be assessed, (Biggs, Tang and Kennedy,  2022 p.182)

Assessment and feedback are crucial for student motivation, engagement, and achievement. They also significantly impact staff workload.

Well-constructed assessments produce valid evidence of student achievement, of learning outcomes (Deneen and Boud, 2014) and should be inclusively designed in a way that respects the diversity of students coming to university.

Advice on designing, managing and developing  assessment in Ulster is provided by the  Assessment Code of Practice, that is informed by Principles of Good Assessment and Feedback and the Quality Assurance Agency, (2023), who stated that assessment was a fundamental element of the student experience.  Read Quality Assurance Agency advice and guidance on assessment

Assessment and Feedback for Learning should:

1. Help learners understand what good looks like by engaging learners with the requirements and performance criteria for each task
2. Support the personalised needs of learners by being accessible, inclusive and compassionate
3. Foster active learning by recognising that engagement with learning resources, peers and tutors can all offer opportunities for formative development
4. Develop autonomous learners by encouraging self-generated feedback, self-regulation, reflection, dialogue and peer review
5. Manage staff and learner workload effectively by having the right assessment, at the right time, supported by efficient business processes
6. Foster a motivated learning community by involving students in decision-making and supporting staff to critique and develop their own practice
7. Promote learner employability by assessing authentic tasks and promoting ethical conduct

The guidelines are:

1. Assessment methods and criteria are aligned to learning outcomes and teaching activities
2. Assessment is reliable, consistent, fair and valid
3. Assessment design is approached holistically
4. Assessment is inclusive and equitable
5. Assessment is explicit and transparent
6. Assessment and feedback is purposeful and supports the learning process
7. Assessment is timely
8. Assessment is efficient and manageable
9. Students are supported and prepared for assessment
10. Assessment encourages academic integrity

The guidance document also contains reflective questions that contribute to assessment audit and redesign.

Assessment should be student-centred, inclusive*, aligned to the learning outcomes and teaching and learning activities. This will increase the likelihood of students experiencing success. Student-centredness  implies a design that begins with the needs of the students in mind instead of the subject, (Race and Pickford, (2007). Inclusive assessment provides opportunities for

• assessment for learning, (AFL)
• assessment as learning, (AAL)
• assessment of learning, (AOL).

*Inclusive design, (and by association inclusive assessment), is expected and is one that  enables engagement in learning that is meaningful, relevant and accessible to all, Hocking, (2010).

Advance HE provides a useful resource on the principles underpinning inclusive assessment design.

Feedback

Our approach to feedback reflects a commitment to clarity, fairness and improvement. Feedback is designed to be timely, clearly linked to assessment criteria, and focused on supporting future learning through dialogue and reflection, ensuring students can understand, trust and use feedback to enhance their academic development.

Clearly communicated to students from the earliest opportunity, feedback practice is underpinned by clear, published marking criteria and rubrics in the module handbook, that support shared understanding of academic standards and ensure transparency and fairness in judgement. Feedback is designed to be timely and the standard for the return of feedback to students from coursework is 20 working days. Feedback should also be clearly linked to the criteria, helping students understand how their work has been evaluated and how they can improve future performance.

Opportunities for dialogue are an integral part of the feedback process, enabling students to discuss feedback, ask questions, and make sense of academic judgement. Through this dialogic approach, feedback supports reflection, improvement and progression, strengthening trust in assessment processes and enhancing the overall student experience.

References

• Biggs J. Tang C. and Kennedy G. (2022), Teaching for Quality Learning at University. (5th Ed). Maidenhead. McGraw Hill
• Boud D. and Falchikov N. (2007). Rethinking assessment in higher education. Learning for the longer term. Abingdon. Routledge
• Bloxham, S & Boyd P. (2007). Developing effective assessment in higher education: a practical guide. Maidenhead, Open University Press
• Deneen C. and Boud D. (2014). Patterns of resistance in managing assessment change. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. 39. 5. Pp. 577-591
• Race P. and Pickford R. (2007). Making Teaching Work. London Sage

Resources

• Recommended view: Changing assessment for good (Aug. 2020). This paper presents an assessment collection to replace traditional exams long-term; Sally Brown and Kay Sambell Assessment Collection
• Jisc Principles of Good Assessment and Feedback 2022
• Assessment Workload Equivalence Guide (revised 2018)
• Guidelines for Writing Assessment Briefs
• A step-by-step guide to designing rubrics that will save hours of marking time - Times Higher Education
• Build effective rubrics in just give steps - Times Higher Education
• Assessment guides

Other relevant workshop recordings

• CHERP Webinar archive
• Reimagining Assessment
• Academic Integrity
• Effective Feedback and Peer Assessment
• Assessing Large Groups
• Assessment Rubric Workshop
• Authentic Alternative Assessments to Exams
• Blackboard Rubrics
• Student Groups in Blackboard

Useful Links

How can you offer student choice in assessment (Advance HE 2024)

After leading a QAA project with The University of Manchester, University of York, UCL and Imperial College London, Miri Firth...

Transforming Assessment in Higher Education Framework (Advance HE, 2015)

Assessment plays a vital role in HE. It is essential for measuring the extent of student learning (assessment of learning)...

Five dimensions of feedback for implementing authentic assessment (Advance HE, 2022)

Nhi Nguyen, content specialist at FeedbackFruits, discusses five dimensions of authentic feedback, and how to optimise each of these in...

Universal Design for Learning – tips for assessment

How can you use the UDL framework to design and reflect on assessments — whether the assessments are through remote...