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Where a student can benefit from having an examination paper presented aurally, the traditional method is to provide a reader. This can be socially uncomfortable for students, and offers of readers are frequently declined. A trial is reported in which examinations were presented on an Apple iPod. This is a medium with which many students are comfortable, which facilitates easy exploration of the examination paper and repetitive listening and which is both socially acceptable and practical in a normal examination room. The findings indicate that it removes one of the significant barriers to greater take‐up of aural presentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of diaries and journals as learning and assessment vehicles into programmes of study within higher education has enabled the further growth of reflection, creative writing, critical thinking and meta-cognitive processes of students' learning. However, there is currently little research that aims to compare how different types of diary are used and for what specific learning and teaching purposes, so, with this in mind, a study was carried out to investigate digital diary use within a group of undergraduates, to some of whom the authors allocated Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), which they used to contribute to a blog (digital diaries), and to some of whom hard-backed format (paper diaries) were given. This paper is the first of two from this study. The findings indicated that whilst students found both forms of diary acceptable and convenient, differences emerged in the way that the diaries were being used on a day-to-day basis, both in the frequency of entry and in the length of entries made. Throughout the study, the digital diaries were used more frequently, although the entries were often brief and incomplete. Conversely, students completing the paper diaries made significantly fewer entries in total, but those that were made were longer and more discursive in nature. Further, it was found that the paper diaries possessed positive qualities related to handling and attractiveness that promoted more prolonged use, whilst the negative qualities of the digital diaries were linked to technical limitations. The implications of this work are considered in relation to more general notions of using dynamic devices to encourage students to engage in reflexive criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the literature on grader variation and the role of moderation and socialisation processes in reducing this variation. It offers a fresh categorisation of academics' assessment beliefs and expectations, and uses this categorisation to analyse the interaction between implicit and explicit expectations in relation to grader variation and socialisation processes. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data from a large class grading moderation process was used to identify the existence and character of residual implicit grader expectations, the impact of these implicit expectations in causing grader variation, and the effectiveness of socialisation in reducing the extent of variation. An effective strategy for designing and focusing socialisation processes is also outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment in institutions of higher learning has been researched worldwide. However, there are gaps in research exploring the implications of assessment practices for learners' access to the kind of knowledge enabling them to participate in their communities' socio-economic transformation. This is the case in the African Great Lakes region, including Rwanda. This paper investigated the assessment practices at the University of Rwanda-College of Education to establish whether they enable students to access powerful knowledge for socio-economic transformation, which promotes critical thinking and creativity, or the knowledge of the powerful, which promotes memorization of knowledge produced by experts. The study adopted mixed methods, where 361 questions from 20 examinations papers for 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 academic years were analysed using Bloom's revised taxonomy. Interviews with lecturers and group discussions with students were conducted. The findings revealed that assessment practices heavily encourage the knowledge of the powerful, with limited focus on the socioeconomic transformative knowledge. Such practices are unlikely to lead to national socioeconomic transformation, which the government expects from education. The paper recommends revisiting assessment practices in Rwandan higher education to instil in the graduates the required knowledge for active contribution to socio-economic transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is now a worldwide focus on the quality of university teaching and yet there is general dissatisfaction in universities with the student evaluation of teaching system. Peer observation of teaching seems to hold much promise in the assessment of teaching quality, but such observation pays little attention to the quality of teaching as perceived by students. One approach to overcome this deficiency is for faculty and students to also partner in the assessment of a faculty member’s teaching, with a student trained in observation and feedback techniques acting as a peer in the observation process. This paper describes and evaluates an ongoing student consultant initiative at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. It presents faculty and student observations in terms of the benefits to faculty regarding potential enhancement of university teaching, and the benefits to students especially in terms of close collaboration with faculty and training in consultation techniques. The paper notes that the student consultant initiative has been more popular with students than faculty, and recommends further investigation of the potential of such programmes in Hong Kong higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A review of articles published in Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, over the last eight years (2006–2013) on assessment in higher education, since the introduction of the Bologna process, is the subject of the paper. The first part discusses the key issue of assessment in higher education and the method used for selecting articles. The second part presents results according to the main emerging themes arising from data analysis: assessment methods, modes of assessment and assessment related to a given teaching and learning method. The paper concludes that the foci of the studies are aligned with assessment practices other than the written test, in accordance with a learner-oriented perspective. Although the implementation of the Bologna process has had different kinds of impact in different European countries, the review shows that the use and effects of a diversity of assessment methods in higher education have been investigated, particularly those pointing to the so-called alternative methods. Implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rubrics have been suggested as a means to foster students' evaluative judgement, the capacity to appraise their own work and that of others; however, empirical evidence of rubrics' effectiveness is still emerging. This paper contributes findings from a randomised controlled experiment on the effect of rubrics on evaluative judgement. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a control group which evaluated peer-authored learning resources without the use of a rubric and an experiment group which carried out the evaluation using a three-item rubric based on (1) alignment with course content, (2) accuracy and (3) clarity. Both groups were asked to rate their confidence and provide comments to justify their scoring. The results showed a small effect size in increasing average agreement on the quality of learning resources in the experiment group. Analysis of comments reveals that criteria in and beyond the rubric guided participants' ratings of quality. The study provides evidence of the impact of rubrics on students' evaluative judgement and an example of how data-driven approaches and learning analytics can inform actionable design choices for embedding pedagogically supported strategies derived from the literature into actively operating educational technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous Australians represent 2.2% of the working age population, yet account for only 1.4% of all university enrolments. In relation to higher degree research students, Indigenous Australians account for 1.1% of enrolments, but only 0.8% of all higher degree research completions. This paper reports on findings that emerged from an Australian Research Council-funded study which aimed to establish a model of best practice for the supervision of Indigenous doctoral students. The project identified the dissertation examination as one of the critical factors underpinning the success of doctoral candidates. Whilst research into the examination process for doctoral students is limited, the research that specifically explores the examination of dissertations submitted by Indigenous students is entirely inadequate. Our research identified key epistemological concerns that impact approaches to the examination process, to demonstrate how the dominance of Western methods of research impact the examination process for Indigenous doctoral students. This paper explores the experiences of 50 successful Indigenous Australian doctors with a specific focus on their examiner preference and disciplinary requirements. It highlights the limitations that some Indigenous students and their supervisors experience in finding an appropriate examiner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes a dual focus on the theme of student formative peer assessment. On the one hand it offers a thorough literature review in this field, while on the other it unpacks a case study of curriculum design where peer assessment has been adopted. The practical example draws on recent changes made to a third- and final-year undergraduate research dissertation course in a UK architectural school. Although peer assessment worked quite well in this small setting, similar findings might be uncovered when scaled up to larger cohorts, as well as other disciplines and year groups. The research findings are certainly relevant for other contexts. Qualitative research from a focus group with six students on the course informs the empirical body of the paper. Through engaging with students’ reflections, as well as the relevant literature, and reflexively looking at the curriculum changes, this paper discusses some of the benefits and drawbacks that can arise from peer assessment in this context. Peer assessment is not without its challenges and hiccups, but, despite these, the benefit to autonomous critical thinking cannot be understated. And arguably peer assessment is especially germane for final-year undergraduates as they embark on employment or more advanced studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is focused on an innovation which involved students being assessed on short written responses to an issue to be addressed in the following classroom session. The innovation was evaluated through a student survey, individual and focus-group interviews with participants, and the analysis of a critical friend. Positive findings included promoting student preparation and reflection, and enabling the teacher to understand students’ prior knowledge before the next session. Challenges included some student misperceptions about the assessment innovation, and the difficulty of assessing the short responses efficiently and reliably. The analysis suggests that starting small is a useful principle for assessment change. The discussion also brings out some wider issues of incentives and barriers for assessment innovation, and sketches some related future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the proliferation of computer networks and the increased use of Internet-based applications, many forms of social interactions now take place in an on-line context through Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). Many universities are now reaping the benefits of using CMC applications to collect data on student evaluations of faculty, rather than using paper-based surveys in Face-To-Face (FTF) classroom settings. While the relative merits of CMC versus FTF student evaluations have been researched extensively, there is limited research published about the ways students respond to the questions from either mode of data collection. This paper reports on a research study to analyse the communication differences between student scores from FTF student evaluations and CMC evaluation questions from end of semester evaluations from a university in the Middle East region. In addition to the questions about communication mode differences between two evaluation questions, several demographic variables were measured to determine any interaction effects. The results of our study suggest that the type of communication channel mitigates the responses that students make on CMC evaluations vis-a-vis FTF evaluations of faculty. In particular, even though there were significant differences found at the aggregate level between CMC and FTF evaluations, when the course and instructor are controlled for, there were no significant differences reported. In addition, several differences were noted depending on the type and level of the course being studied. Also, we found that students are more likely to express more extreme responses to scale questions in CMC than FTF evaluations. Administrators should consider these potential differences when implementing on-line evaluation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One issue universities face is the need to demonstrate excellence in postgraduate research supervision at the individual, faculty and university level. While poor supervision might become obvious over time, with grievances, withdrawals and poor completion times and rates, this paper focuses specifically on identifying and demonstrating supervisory excellence. Currently, the amount and range of evidence used to support claims of supervisory excellence tends to be limited, leaving supervisors, faculties and institutions in a position where demonstrating excellence remains difficult. This paper proposes two inter-dependent ideas which, considered together, help to redress this problem. The first is a 'map' for the collection and use of evidence of supervisory excellence. The second is a 'template' for a 'supervisory excellence report'. The 'map' details the organisational elements, uses of data, and data types which can be considered. The 'report' explains one simple and potent way to organise and present these data for multiple purposes. Together they constitute a much-needed framework for promoting and recognising excellence in the supervision of research students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the outcomes of a School of Law project undertaken in response to issues arising during the implementation of an institutional criterion-referenced assessment policy. The project involved the development of a set of generic assessment criteria and standards, or rubric, which could be customized to the requirements of individual law subjects. Of significance are the key decisions that shaped the generic resource and additional outcomes or byproducts of the project which include the professional learning experienced by individual members of the project working party and the identification of mutually reinforcing relationships between criterion-referenced assessment practice and other institutional policies and priorities. The paper concludes that analysis of project processes can produce findings whose value and significance are of equal interest to those resulting from implementation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of group work, in which three or more students jointly produce a piece of work for summative assessment, is an established aspect of teaching and learning in higher education. Opinions vary however about whether their marks should vary according to the respective contributions they made to the work. This paper is based on the assumption that if adjustments are to be made, they should be made on sound statistical grounds. Current methods for adjusting student marks do not allow the size of the adjustments to be controlled and empirical data are presented which show that very large adjustments can occur. This paper presents a method for deriving final student marks from a single tutor mark and ratings which students make of each other’s contributions. The method incorporates a mechanism for directly controlling the size of the adjustments made. It is demonstrated using data from students following a degree programme in computing. A spreadsheet has been written which undertakes the calculations necessary to apply the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of this paper is assessment. It raises questions concerning the aims and purposes of testing and the means by which it is done. Assessment has four main roles: formative, to provide support for future learning; summative, to provide information about performance at the end of a course; certification, selecting by means of qualification; evaluative, a means by which stakeholders can judge the effectiveness of the system as a whole. For universities, the different roles of assessment can create tensions: awarding more first class degrees may indicate rising standards of teaching and learning or precisely the opposite. In the UK, universities have been criticised for not having marking and grading systems that are robust, whilst evidence from the Higher Educational Statistics Agency revealed the number of first class honours degrees awarded in UK universities ranged from 21.1% in mathematical sciences to 4.1% in business and administrative studies and 3.7% in law. Even within institutions there is also a considerable variation in degree classification, which appears to have little relationship to any measure of input. Furthermore, evidence based on analysis of modular degree schemes in the UK indicates that there is considerable variation in the formulae that are used to award honours degrees even within a single university. This paper will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a grade-related criterion common grading scheme using data obtained from staff and students at one UK university and examine the implications of such a scheme for the maintenance and enhancement of standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide a proof of concept of a collaborative peer-, self- and lecturer assessment processes. The research presented here is part of an ongoing study on self- and peer assessments in higher education. The authentic assessment for sustainable learning (AASL) model is evaluated in terms of the correlations between sets of marks. The article provides an explanation of the assessment process, and analyses sets of marks as a means of justifying the validity of the process. The results suggest that students, even those with no prior experience in peer- or self-evaluation, in their first year of tertiary study, under the right conditions, are able to accurately judge their own work and make reasonably accurate judgements of the work of their peers. While previous studies have expounded the benefits of self- and peer assessments in tertiary study, undertaking a prescribed process, such as AASL, has a further implication in allowing others to replicate the process with reasonable assuredness of the validity of the process across various fields of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable assessment has been proposed as an idea that focused on the contribution of assessment to learning beyond the timescale of a given course. It was identified as an assessment that meets the needs of the present in terms of the demands of formative and summative assessment, but which also prepares students to meet their own future learning needs. This paper reviews the value of such a notion for assessment; how it has been taken up over the past 15 years in higher education and why it might still be needed. It identifies how it has been a successful intervention in assessment discourse. It explores what more is needed to locate assessment as an intervention to focus on learning for the longer term. It shows how sustainable assessment can help bridge the gap between assessment and learning, and link to ideas such as self-regulation, students’ making judgements about their own work and course-wide assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an effort to create a unified model for conducting and assessing undergraduate dissertations, shared by all disciplines involved in computer game development at a Swedish university. Computer game development includes technology-oriented disciplines as well as disciplines with aesthetical traditions. The challenge has been to create a unified process and assessment procedure while maintaining the individual disciplines’ academic standards. The unification has been achieved through the development of the Interdisciplinary Dissertation Model – a shared model where the assessment is focused on fundamental academic principles, and there is a clear separation between summative and formative assessment and well-defined interaction loops between examiners, supervisors and students. Examiners from all involved disciplines have regular meetings focusing on creating an interdisciplinary view on the summative assessment of undergraduate dissertations. The model developed has been successful in that it allows for a unified process for disciplines from fundamentally different academic traditions. The quality of the examined dissertations has been evaluated in a national evaluation. The result shows that all participating disciplines meet the requirements from their respective communities. This shows that the proposed model successfully unifies disciplines without sacrificing the quality in any discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Students are increasingly subject to a series of learning pressures that prevent effective engagement in assessment. Thus, the aim of this study was to create a multi-faceted formative assessment approach that better enabled students to engage in the assessment process. A formative assessment approach, consisting of six key initiatives, is outlined and shown as being useful in helping to improve student engagement with the subject area of environmental governance. The effectiveness of the assessment approach was assessed via analysis of written student feedback that facilitated analysis of student perceptions of the assessment process. The paper argues that for formative assessment to be more widely embraced, and made more effective in encouraging learning, greater recognition must be accorded to the strategies that can be adopted to facilitate the uptake of formative assessment. A reduction in summative assessment burden and the recognition of the need for better 'information' on the aims and objectives of the assessment, and subsequent discussion of these, are highlighted as having played their role in facilitating the uptake, and effective implementation, of formative assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one about a structured analysis of feedback in terms of a general framework for clarifying its role in students' learning, another about a study of interactive dialogue with students, and yet another about university policy in relation to teaching and learning.

The Dearing Report’s (1997) radical proposals challenged lecturers in higher education to develop innovative assessment strategies. This paper explores the dilemmas experienced by one teaching team in designing and implementing a student self‐assessment strategy within a community nursing degree programme. The paper reviews the impact on students’ sense of autonomy and critical thinking skills. In addition, it considers, in depth, the risks associated with developing and implementing a strategy involving self‐assessment. Drawing on a range of sources it examines the drivers for the initiative, the response from the range of stakeholders involved and the impact on the student experience. The academic team found that developing such a creative initiative is time consuming, provokes anxiety and requires extensive negotiation and collaboration between academic and practice colleagues. However, the adoption of a self‐assessment initiative has a significant effect on students’ critical thinking skills and warrants the effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing students through their Microsoft PowerPoint presentations might be thought to be impossible, a waste of time or a fascination with new technology which will pass sooner or later. However, to make a judgement on such assertions requires examining the strengths and weaknesses of such a form of assessment. Examples within an academic setting are few and far between, but this paper explores one such case—a Microsoft PowerPoint assessment used in an undergraduate Bachelor programme in Travel and Tourism in a Norwegian university college. The goal of this essay is to look at its validity, measured in terms of how well its empirical evidence and theoretical rationales support the adequacy of its inferences on assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the practice of special consideration for students who have been unable to complete examinations or assignments due to temporary incapacity such as illness or bereavement. A literature review revealed no meaningful academic discussion on the place of such special consideration in higher education. A broad overview of the international situation is presented and the courses of action used in various institutions are identified. While it is a widely accepted practice that some form of special consideration is offered to students, there is no generally argued justification for it. The key argument offered in this article is that special consideration can be offered while still being fair and while maintaining academic rigour. The broad social values that can be used to justify special academic consideration are presented, as are the general conditions which must exist for special consideration to be justified and verified. The paper closes with a brief review of potential further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the widespread use of web-based learning environments in the tertiary sector it is important to establish the usability of such environments for the target audience and their effectiveness in terms of meeting the educational objectives. However, a search of the literature has shown a scarcity of systematic evaluative studies of web-based learning environments. Furthermore, the literature did not reveal a consistent starting position on appropriate methodologies with which to carry out such evaluations. This paper presents a general methodology for evaluating complex systems that is particularly appropriate for web-based learning systems. Using what is called a trailing methodology (Finne et al., 1995), an evaluation was carried out of a web site that was used with student industrial experience projects. A key element in this evaluation was that the process was adaptive and collaborative; another was that it involved a team with expertise in evaluation, knowledge of the functional aspects of the web site and the educational purpose of the site. The evaluation process pointed to the importance of a flexible approach that utilizes the skills of the key stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classified honours degree has so much prestige and so venerable a tradition that only very serious and systemic changes could justify the question as to whether classification has a future. However, while this paper argues that such changes have indeed taken place in the past 30 years, the main arguments for change are pedagogical. The proposed change is for an unclassified degree, in which details are provided in a profile, covering assessments—only some of which can be classified—in a range of learning activities. A major innovation is the creation by each student of a portfolio, a device well known in art and architecture, which documents their learning. One consequence of this change is that students are treated individually and the traditional concept of fairness, which is based on all students being treated the same, has to be replaced by a more sophisticated concept of fairness. More generally, this change—with its stress on integrating assessment and the process of learning, as opposed to the current attitude where assessment certifies the product of learning—will have to affect not only the processes of assessment, but of all associated teaching and learning. The proposed scheme ought to be helpful also to prospective employers, who would, however, have to change many traditional attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a required methods course, based on the national curriculum of science and technology for junior high schools. The course participants are pre-service teachers who study towards a B.Sc. degree in education in science and technology parallel to their studies in one of the faculties of sciences or engineering. Working in small teams, the students carry out a project in a Project-Based Learning (PBL) environment. The final outcomes of the project are group and individual written reports, a portfolio, a multimedia presentation and a physical model. The research question was: what implementation issues and processes do higher education students encounter in a Project-Based Learning environment which involves an alternative assessment approach? Qualitative and quantitative tools for collecting data included 'the participant as observer' observations at the classroom, semi-structured interviews with students, questionnaire, and analysis of students' reports and products. The findings relate to the advantages of PBL from the students' point of view, the challenges students experienced and perceived while conducting their projects, and the benefits students may gain from formative assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics are increasingly expected to be research productive. An impressive research output requires the ability to communicate in sophisticated written English in order to ensure that a publication is of an acceptable standard. In response to the demands for advanced writing skills to maintain high standards in research publications, a pilot online writing network of information (OWN) has been developed to provide academics in the School of Nursing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with research writing support in English. In this paper the OWN database is introduced with an explanation of the theoretical foundations and the needs analysis that shaped each link. Then, with data from two questionnaires completed by the users and interview of four users, I present a user evaluation of OWN. The questionnaires suggest that users see certain links as more useful in providing individualised writing support, while the interviewees most appreciate the complete privacy in which support could be sought. Through this description and user evaluation, I argue that academics could benefit from English language support when writing for publication, and computer technology may offer both flexibility and privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While feedback is widely considered central to student learning, students across the higher education sector commonly report dissatisfaction with the feedback they receive. In contrast, academics often feel they provide quality and informative feedback. This article explores and compares the perceptions of students and academics with regard to feedback practice. The paper presents the results of questionnaire surveys conducted with academics and students at the School of the Built Environment, Liverpool John Moores University. It highlights the perceptions of academics and students with regard to preferences for different types of feedback, timeliness of feedback, students’ engagement and interest in feedback, quality feedback and satisfaction with current practice. The findings indicate a significant discord between staff and students in relation to certain aspects of feedback practice, namely opinions on students’ engagement and interest in feedback, satisfaction with current practice and feedback preference. Similarities in viewpoints were also found in relation to quality feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using the concepts of criticality, reflectivity and praxis, the paper presents an analysis of our reflections on participants’ responses to the assessment requirements for a course for lecturers on teaching. The context in which the course is being taught has changed considerably in the last few years in terms of the mode of delivery, as well as the number and diversity of participants. Our analysis has generated insights into ways in which the course is not meeting all the learning needs of the participants, nor preparing them adequately to demonstrate, in writing,their learning. Using insights gained, we suggest pedagogic processes and strategies for ensuring that the course focuses on both writing to learn and learning to write; and for assisting participants to acquire the practices to demonstrate their learning in written assessment tasks, using the requisite literacy including criticality, reflectivity and praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The debate about whether and how reflection should/can be assessed has so far yielded inconclusive findings. This paper intends to revisit and further this controversial issue within a specific disciplinary context: the assessment of reflection in English enhancement courses within a second-language environment. Students across majors taking the language enhancement courses in question are often required to provide written or verbal evidence to demonstrate their abilities to reflect, and in turn enhance their linguistic repertoires. However, a potential problem arises when the assessment of ‘reflection’ at times may become the assessment of learners’ English language proficiency, thus casting doubts about the validity and reliability of incorporating reflection as an assessment tool in our context. Drawing on analyses of seven English enhancement courses with a reflection component, and semi-structured interviews with 22 faculty members who had had the experience of assessing reflection, and/or developing assessment criteria for evaluating the quality of students’ reflection, their perceptions of assessing reflection fairly and the challenges encountered during the assessment process were brought to the surface. A holistic framework is proposed to address the challenges encountered, particularly with respect to the differences in emphasis that faculty members place on content vs. language. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several papers propose analytical methods relating to the inclusion of sustainability in courses and universities. However, as sustainability is a complex subject, methodological proposals on the topic must avoid making disjointed analyses which focus exclusively on curricula or on organisational strategy, as often seen in the literature. Accordingly, the aim of this article was to propose a complex matrix for the analysis of sustainable transformative learning (CMASTL). This model integrates the change processes for sustainability and the management and teaching–learning processes, presenting different levels of sustainability inclusion in educational institutions. The basis of the CMASTL is a complex framework comparing different ways of understanding individuals and organisations that influence how sustainability is defined and the measures necessary for it to be achieved. The framework presents key concepts which informed the development of the CMASTL. In constructing the matrix, a number of articles from international periodicals proposing different sustainability evaluation tools for use in teaching institutions were consulted. The aim of the CMASTL was thus to both integrate and complement existing methodological proposals. As well as adding value to academic discussions, the CMASTL can be used as a guide for courses and universities seeking to implement positive changes for sustainable learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When students fail an examination at the end of their first year, they are offered a resit examination, which they merely need to pass to progress into the second year. These resits anecdotally provide a dual purpose of testing that students have achieved the required level of attainment to progress, and incentivising additional effort. This paper uses regression discontinuity design to attempt to estimate the effect of resits in first year statistics with econometrics examinations on future outcomes. Whilst resits alone appear to make zero significant effect on outcomes, students who perform well in the resit examination perform 0.7 standard deviations better in second-year microeconomics than similar students who do not receive resit examinations. These effects, if replicated more widely, could be worth up to £48,000 across the lifetime of each student. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this research was to identify the factors that could be used for quality assessments of the placement centres used by the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Education. To achieve this, a multiple case study method (bachelor’s degrees in Education, Social Education and Social Work) was used, which was based on a survey methodology. A questionnaire, which identified seven quality criteria, was applied to 291 placement centres. An analysis of the placement centres’ average quality scores revealed that most of them had high scores for consideration of the training activity, tutor–student ratio, type of placement, capacity of providing career opportunities, the centre’s tutoring, the tutors’ tasks and the coverage of the competences. We considered it necessary to improve the definition of quality placement plans, and the recognition of the tutor’s work at the centre; therefore, this paper proposes an instrument to measure and assess the quality indicators described, aiming at improving the placements system at the University by better connecting universities and centres. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contract cheating happens when students commission someone else to do assessed work for them. While it is already illegal in 18 jurisdictions, others are considering making the provision of contract cheating services illegal. To date, legal approaches to addressing contract cheating have faced little scrutiny in the peer reviewed literature. This article outlines some challenges with the legal approach to combating contract cheating. To this end it examines a segment of the contract cheating market to determine if contractors operate in localities where contract cheating services have been made illegal. The results suggest that contractors operate in plain sight, offering services to and from localities where services are prohibited by law. On the basis of the current challenges with enforcement of legal rules, this article recommends some alternative strategies for addressing contract cheating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the biosciences, a professional placement experience in academia or industry is intended to contribute to a student’s personal and professional training. While there is a general acknowledgement that a placement experience is beneficial for students, recent years have seen a decline in the number of students choosing to go on placements. Using a mixed‐method research design, this paper explores the attitudes that influence the bioscience students’ decisions on whether or not to undertake a year in a professional placement. Other questions considered in this study were whether placements influence student attitudes towards learning and if students achieve a better degree classification and better employment because of placement. Perspectives from academic staff and employers were compared with student perspectives on the added value of undertaking an extended placement during a period of study at university. While our findings reaffirm some of the perceived advantages of a professional placement in terms of learning and employability, it identifies important factors that influence student decisions not to undertake placements, revealing interesting questions on the placement perspectives between the student, academic tutor and employer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to inspire stakeholders working with quality of higher education (such as members of study boards, study programme directors, curriculum developers and teachers) to critically consider their evaluation methods in relation to a focus on student learning. We argue that many of the existing methods of evaluation in higher education are underpinned by a conception of learning that is de-contextualised. As a consequence, many data collection methods do not address aspects that affect students' learning. This is problematic because the core aim of higher education is to facilitate student learning. We propose a contextualised evaluation methodology, guided by 10 key questions, which can help evaluators address concepts and questions of student learning in their evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores students' conceptions of good teaching in three different disciplines. Moreover, the aim is to explore the relation between these conceptions and students' approaches to learning by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. A total of 695 students from the Faculties of Behavioural Sciences, Law and Veterinary Medicine participated in the study. The students' conceptions of good teaching were analysed using a qualitative content analysis. Furthermore, the students were assigned to homogenous subgroups on the basis of their responses to items measuring approaches to learning and the differences between these subgroups and the students' conceptions were examined. The association between the conceptions, disciplines and approaches to learning were examined using Chi-square tests. Twenty-one dimensions were created from the data and 12 of them differed between the disciplines. Only one dimension differed between the student groups. The study suggests that there is disciplinary variation in students' conceptions of good teaching and universities should take this into account in the development process of the student evaluation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a report on a study of innovation in postgraduate education in which a reflective learning journal was used for formal assessment purposes in a management accounting course. Prompted by the discourse on the shortcomings of accounting education in terms of learning processes, learning experiences and learning outcomes, the reflective journal was designed to address concerns related to poor uptake of teaching and learning innovations in the discipline and recognised deficiencies in the generic competencies of accounting graduates. Utilising action research methods, the incremental approach to the implementation of the assessment activity is described and evaluated based on an analysis of 73 journal submissions across a five-year period. The results, while based on a sample of limited size, indicated a dichotomy in surface versus deep approaches to learning in reference to the assessment task, but with improvements in student performances and learning outcomes when more radical change to the learning journal assessment item was introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many reports have identified a perceived lack of quality in regard to assessment feedback in higher education contexts. One research study in 2007 on undergraduate university students found that less than half of the students (46%) collected their formative feedback, suggesting that from their perspective feedback clearly was not fulfilling the role it should. This is a study of 465 graduate students and 101 undergraduate students studying teacher education at a major Australian university. The study investigated what students perceived to be effective, quality feedback based upon their extensive higher education experiences. Students identified preferences in regard to form, detail and timing of assessment feedback. The data were collected by means of pen and paper survey and identified which strategies the students perceived to be the most effective, particularly within the context of large cohort teaching and written assessment formats. Findings agreed with research elsewhere regarding problems with assessment feedback quality and quantity, but students also provided clear indications of how realistic improvements could be made in terms of assessment feedback processes and strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, national quality assurance systems of higher education have begun to be established. In Finland, this development has had the consequence of forcing universities to take notice of assessment procedures. However, little is known about the procedures taking place in individual academic departments as a result of this pan-European trend. This article describes how academics currently comprehend quality assessment, paying particular attention to self-evaluations and quality assurance systems. Altogether, the paper casts light on how academics are responding to the increasing university assessment activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a small-scale exploratory study, which focuses on the impact of formative assessment that was provided as part of a writing intervention in a first-year undergraduate programme. Qualitative data were collected to find evidence of use of formative feedback, and of resulting improvements, as well as to shed some light on students' inclination to use feedback. Uptake and use of the formative feedback was assessed by an analysis of feedback comments on students' texts as well as by students' interviews. The findings showed that students who had utilised their feedback comments improved in the areas previously criticised. In the texts of several students, however, the same problems persisted; it became apparent in the interviews that they had paid little attention to their feedback comments and not acted upon them. The interviews also uncovered reasons for engagement or non-engagement with the feedback. These include students' high or low motivation based on the enjoyment of the degree programme and self-perceptions of their ability as writers. It is argued that more attention needs to be paid to tone, style and amount of feedback comments to ensure that students with low motivation and a low self-perception utilise them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]