A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

292 ❘
Teaching in the disciplines
Assessment
Students of computing science need to experience a range of assessment techniques
throughout their learning experience. All major activities on an Honours degree
programme in computing should be assessed, with progress or award the appropriate
outcome. The assessment technique needs to correlate with the nature of the learning,
and assessment is required to cover all learning outcomes of the programme. Formal
examination, coursework submitted on time, and project work assessed partly by oral
examination expose students to a variety of methods. Other challenges exist with equality
and comparability when assessing aspects such as work-based learning. This of necessity
must involve the student, visiting academic mentor and industrial supervisor. Students
must be made aware of the individual elements of work-based learning and the
contribution of each to the final mark.
The use of VLEs or other automatic methods for computer-assisted assessment (CAA)
has a significant and increasing role, particularly in the earlier years of programmes where
basic knowledge and understanding of factual information is being assessed. This has the
role of providing rapid feedback to the student on performance but needs careful design
to ensure appropriate formative feedback, a necessity if students are to get added value
from the assessment and thus improve on their performance. CAA is particularly popular
for assessment of large groups.
A compilation of student achievement in the form of portfolios is becoming another
method of assessment. The portfolio can include evidence from sources such as tutor
feedback on work and sections of completed project work. This is a suitable environment
to allow students to reflect on and analyse past experience. The actual assessment criteria
for a portfolio mainly evaluates organisational skills and evidence of critical and reflective
analysis.
Self- and peer assessment has increased in higher education in recent years. These are
particularly useful as formative assessment methods rather than summative. This is
identified as students assessing the work of others at a similar level. While of limited use
as a method of acquiring a formal mark it has the value of making estimates of others work
and providing feedback.
Plagiarism is an increasing problem particularly in coursework and its detection
presents considerable difficulty in assessment. The vast array of materials readily
available via the internet makes it difficult to detect the work of others, submitted by
students and passed off as their own. Computing science academics have long been
concerned with issues relating to plagiarism detection and most departments have drawn
up proactive anti-plagiarism policies. Clearly students are tempted to plagiarise in
order to gain some advantage in their overall grading. The Joint Information Systems
committee (JISC) has established a national plagiarism detection advisory service to aid
detection (see www.jiscpas.ac.uk). In dealing with plagiarism institutions need a clear
policy which both acts as a deterrent to the practice and also offers support and guidance
to students.