UTQ Assess

This course is crafted to guide you through the formulation of your assessment strategy, to the creation and evaluation of your exams and assignments for your current and future practice. Together we will explore key topics such as assessor bias, formative versus summative assessment, the significance of the cut-off point (cesura/cesuur), and the nuances between scoring and grading. Throughout the course days, we uphold the central theme of achieving good quality assessment throughout WU's educational programmes.

Upon successful completion of the course requirements, encompassing attendance and the certification assignment, you shall be granted the partial UTQ certificate Assess. Additionally, you will be conferred with the BKE certificate, a nationally recognised Dutch credential affirming your attainment of the 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). 

Because the course is mandatory for the UTQ trajectory, priority will be given to UTQ participants. If you want to join a UTQ course without being in the UTQ, contact us at info.utq@wur.nl.

Pre-requisites for this course

This course is designed for teaching staff with little to some experience in designing exams and assignments. Before you enroll 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.

Please discuss your UTQ planning with your UTQ coach and do not enroll in more than two UTQ courses in the same period. 

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 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 about assessment. 
5. formulate plans for further development of your assessment expertise. 

additional goals:

1. analyse how the assessment fits within the assessment policy of the university (regarding EER, rules & regulations of the 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 argue whether it is useful for your assessment practice. 
5. acknowledge the importance of formative assessment, with a 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 development in constructing high-quality assessments.

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

Please note: you need to reserve about 4 hours of 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. The certification assignment after the course days takes about 4 hours to complete.

	Prep day 1	Prep day 2	Prep  day 3	Certification assignment
Amount of time	4 to 5 hours	2 hours	2 hours	4 hours
Deadline	Around 10 days  before day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Two weeks after day 3

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 before the course.

Assessment 

After successful completion of the course and 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 assessments in Higher Education. This is also 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, the Teaching and Learning Centre may cancel the course and notify you at the latest 2 weeks before the start of the course.