UTQ Assess

You can follow this UTQ Assessment course to equip yourself for your role in designing, executing, and evaluating assessment.
This course focuses on the knowledge, skills and attitude that are needed within the entire assessment cycle, as described in UTQ competence #3: Assessment. We start from the assessment strategy of your course, via analysis towards construction of exams and assignments. We then focus on reviewing, grading, evaluation. And your personal professionalisation regarding the assessment competence.

We touch upon subjects such as: assessor bias, formative/ summative assessment, the cut-off point and the difference between scoring and grading. The guiding theme throughout the course is what excellent quality assessment entails.

After successful completion of the course (attendance and assignments) you will receive the partial UTQ certificate for the competence #3 Assess. Next to that you will receive the BKE certificate (Dutch national recognised certificate in: Basic Qualification in Examination). 

Target group

We welcome all teaching staff who wish to improve their assessment skills. This course is a mandatory part of the University Teaching Qualification (UTQ).

Pre-requisites for this course

This course is designed for teaching staff with little to some experience in designing exams and assignments. Before you enrol make sure that:

• you have experience in administering exams and assignments.
• you have responsibilities for designing (parts of) an exam/assignment of at least one course.

 

UTQ competences

4TU UTQ competence: 3. Assessment, the teacher can:

• a. design and implement the assessment of student development and learning outcomes.
• b. analyse the assessment results and draw conclusions

Learning outcomes

After the successful completion of this course you will be able to:

1. develop an assessment design (assessment strategy and assessment specification grid).
2. provide examples of (an assessment) with closed and open exam questions and their corresponding answer models and of assignment descriptions with rubrics.
3. evaluate how the example of an assessment meets the quality criteria: validity, reliability, transparency, feasibility, and positive impact on student learning.
4. reflect on personal strengths, weaknesses, and development in relation to assessment. 
5. formulate plans for further development of your own assessment expertise. 

additional goals:

1. analyse how the assessment fits within the assessment policy of the university (regarding EER, rules & regulations of examining board et cetera).
2. use psychometric analysis to improve the quality of the assessment. 
3. substantiate the choice of method used to determine the cut-off point and the grading of the work. 
4. get acquainted with digital assessment and argument whether it is useful for your own assessment practice. 
5. acknowledge the importance of formative assessment, with focus on students’ ownership of learning outcomes. 
6. describe the procedures for administering assessments. 
7. describe procedures for communicating and registering assessment results. 

Course activities

During the course you will: analyse your assessment strategy, use different assessment methods, construct assessments, set a cut-off point for your assessment, use psychometric analysis and reflect on your own development in constructing high quality assessment.

The course is set up as a blended learning course: you will study course materials prior to the three training days and make use of our online learning support (brightspace). You can use this input together with your own course materials to analyse and construct your own assessments.

Please note: you need to reserve about 4 hours preparation time before the first course day, and about 4 hours of self-study between the course training days to prepare for the second and third day meetings.

For UTQ-participants and participants who want to obtain the BKE-certificate, there is a certification assignment. This will take about 4 hours.

Literature

The book we use will be sent to you before the start of the course. The book is also available at Forum and Leeuwenborch libraries on campus.

Veen, E. van de. (2017). Hoe maak ik een toetsopdracht? : handleiding voor toetsopdrachten en beoordelingsformulieren in het hoger onderwijs = How to assess students through assignments : a guide to creating assignments and rubrics in higher education. (J. Kuenen, Ed.) (Tweede, verbeterde druk). Communicatiereeks.

Other necessary information for this course can be found in our online learning support (Brightspace). You will receive access to this environment prior to the course.

Assessment 

After successful completion of the course and all its assignments you will be awarded your partial UTQ Assess certificate ánd the BKE certificate.

(BKE: Basic Qualification in Examination, a Dutch nationally recognised certificate of competence in constructing high quality assessment in Higher Education. This is recognised by all Dutch Universities of Applied Science).

Costs

Participation is free for Wageningen University & Research staff involved in teaching in a Wageningen University Degree programme.

Cancellation

We consider registration as final. When cancelled within three weeks before the course activities start, your chair group will be charged all costs of your subscription (€350,-).

If there are less than 6 participants in the course, Teaching and Learning Centre may cancel the course and notify you at the latest 2 weeks before the start of the course.