London Metropolitan University Liverpool Hope University College Aston University
Assessment Plus is a consortium-led project with the initial work taking place at London Metropolitan University, Liverpool Hope University and Aston University. Resources will be rolled out to at least three further institutions to trial and evaluate, including The Open University, Hull University and London Institute. The project is funded by HEFCE through phase 4 of the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL4).

Background

Assessment Plus grew out the experience of using assessment criteria to help students write better essays as part a discipline-based skills module taken by level 1 BSc Psychology students at London Metropolitan University since 1998 (Elander, 2003), and it is informed by the perspective that a psychological approach can contribute to improving assessment practice by helping to make implicit influences more explicit (Elander, 2004). The idea that assessment criteria can be used in an active way to help students learn developed from the work of Lin Norton and colleagues at Liverpool Hope and Chris Rust and colleagues at Oxford Brooks. Research on essay writing has shown that many students believe markers will be impressed by aspects of the work that are not mentioned in the assessment criteria (Norton et al., 1996a; 1996b; 1999) and that students misunderstand how markers will apply the criteria (Longhurst & Norton, 1997).

Norton (1990) recommended that tutors should explain what is meant by the qualities set out in the criteria, and, similarly, O'Donovan et al. (2000) showed that merely presenting assessment criteria to students had little impact on student performance and suggested that several further steps were needed, including seminars focusing on the criteria. Subsequent interventions using assessment criteria have helped develop students' understanding of the criteria and have led to improvements in student performance (Price et al., 2001; Rust et al., 2003). Informed by these findings, Assessment Plus aims to develop a range of resources which focus on the use of assessment criteria to support student learning.

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