Well-chosen assessment that motivates and develops individual knowledge and skills as well as validating student achievement is an essential part of course and unit design, and each type of assessment comes with particular attributes to be considered. This page sets out some of the main pros and cons of each type as described in the University’s Assessment Taxonomy.
Examinations
Fixed time exam assessment to test knowledge and understanding of certain topics, no other reference material can be used during the exam. Questions can vary from MCQ, short or long answer. Questions can be ‘seen’ (known in advance) or ‘unseen’. Scheduled in formal assessment periods by the Exams office.
Advantages
- All students complete the same assessment on a specific date/ time/ venue, which may increase equality of opportunity.
- Marking criteria may be easier to apply consistently.
- Marking time may be reduced if the time constraint limits the amount of work that students can produce.
Disadvantages
- Can be focused on memory recall, rather than application and analysis of knowledge.
- Can inadvertently become a test of how well students manage time or compose answers.
- Single point high stakes assessments can be stressful for many students. Consider whether students have had recent experience of this type of assessment or may need lower-stakes opportunities to encounter timed in-person exams.
- Some practical challenges for students with DAPs.
Further information and case-studies
A written assessment occurring during the University’s official examination period. Students are expected to answer a question or set of questions relating to a particular area of study under timed conditions and with access to reference materials. The reference materials available to students can be limited (e.g. one page of notes, or a formula booklet), or can allow students to access any material. Open-book examinations may be ‘seen’ where the student is aware in advance of the question(s) they are expected to answer, or ‘seen’, where the questions are only revealed on the day. Open book examinations can be invigilated or not. Open book exams may be completed online.
Advantages
- Can focus on higher level learning skills, testing understanding of a subject and application of knowledge and skills.
- Typically require students to design, compare, contrast, analyse, evaluate, synthesise, rather than recall.
- Can use real world scenarios or replicate workplace tasks and is therefore potentially more authentic as a form of assessment.
Disadvantages
- Having access to a greater volume of information can hinder time management and performance if students aren’t fully prepared for the examination.
- Consider the time limit to complete the exam. If too long, with access to resources, students may continue working for longer than is desirable.
- Online modes require reliable internet access and a suitable location to take the exam.
- Online modes may require additional time and skill if students need to upload materials in various formats.
Further information and case-studies
A timed test taken outside the University’s assessment period, in a normal classroom or online, during a timetabled session. In-class tests may be seen or unseen, and open- or closed book. MCQ and automarked quizzes allow for detailed personalised and specific feedback to be delivered to students in a timely and scalable manner.
Advantages
- Well written questions can be used to check simple knowledge as well as more complex concepts across a broad range of subject content.
- An example of effective ‘retrieval practice’, identifying gaps in knowledge and strengthening connections. Staff can generate cohort insights into misconceptions and areas of difficulty.
- Supports smaller or more regular low stakes summative assessment which provided students with opportunity to act on feedback.
- Automated marking and provision of feedback to students supports use with large cohorts. Question banks can be retained and used for following cohorts.
- Feedback can be released and acted on during/at completion of quiz or some other fixed date.
Disadvantages
- Poorly designed questions can make passing by guesswork easier. It can be challenging to write MCQ tests that probe ‘higher order’ assessment goals (evaluate, apply, analyse, etc).
- Time is needed when first writing the question bank and feedback for different answers (which is later offset by time saved in marking). Creating shorter questions and genuine distractors in MCQs can be difficult.
- Students may perceive in-class tests as easier than other methods of assessment and consequently reduce the time spent on exam preparation.
- Scheduling invigilators (if necessary) can be difficult outside of exam periods and where different venues are required (e.g. to support DAPs).
Further information and case-studies
Coursework
Essays require students to construct a reasoned argument in response to a specific question, assimilating into this argument relevant supporting ideas and evidence. Students are expected to introduce, build, and reinforce their argument, before concluding with an overall statement.
- Essays usually have set word limits, usually ranging from 1000 to 5000 words, varying between discipline and level of study.
- At undergraduate level, students are often given the specific problem or question.
- At postgraduate level, students may be given a specific problem or question or may be asked to identify their own research questions.
Advantages
- Students may have familiarity with essays from their previous educational experiences.
- A wealth of resources are available to provide support.
- Essays can help students develop their critical thinking, evidence gathering, reasoning and written communication skills to make a coherent argument to a chosen audience.
- Essay writing hones research and communication skills that can be transferred to other forms of professional writing.
- Word counts encourage information selection and appraisal, succinct communication, and clear messaging.
Disadvantages
- Students and employers may consider essay writing as less authentic and transferable to a range of employment opportunities than other types of assessment.
- Essays can be more time-consuming to write and mark than other types of assessment.
- Interpretations of marking criteria for essays are sometimes subjective, especially where there is a common mark scheme for a range of essay titles.
Further information and case-studies
A report requires a concise, factual style of writing that is likely to focus on a specific problem, event, or audience. A report may ask a writer to summarise key research, events, or problems and to offer actionable future steps. Reports typically have a prescribed format.
Reports differ between disciplines. Often students are required to produce a report after participating in a practical activity such as fieldwork, laboratory work, work experience or placement, though they may also be focused on appraising secondary sources or data.
Advantages
- Report writing can be an authentic assessment; a task regularly given to employees and students on placement.
- Communicating knowledge clearly and succinctly is a highly transferable skill.
- Reports often follow a specific style within a subject area, therefore feedback can be specific and actionable in future assessments.
Disadvantages
- Consider the frequency of report writing as an assessment. If the style is prescribed and replicated in each submission, it may limit the scope for learners’ development to practice the same set of skills each time.
- Reports can be time-consuming to mark and interpretations of marking criteria to reports are sometimes subjective.
- There is a vigorous industry of ‘essay mills’ that produce written assignment content for students, which can be hard to detect through plagiarism software.
Further information and case-studies
A dissertation is an extended piece of research and writing, which follows many of the same conventions as the essay. Dissertations showcase a student’s ability to become a competent researcher at a level suitable to their programme of study and a producer of knowledge.
- Students are more likely to have chosen their area of study, designed their own research, and undertaken any practical investigations or primary and secondary data searches themselves.
- Dissertations tend to include more structural component than an essay, including not only an introduction, main body, and conclusion, but also an abstract, methodology and/or literature review, findings and discussion, and appendices.
- The word counts tend to range from 5-20,000 words, although this varies between disciplines.
Advantages
- Writing in this style supports students to develop their critical thinking, evidence gathering, reasoning and written communication skills to make a coherent argument to a chosen audience.
- Writing a dissertation requires information selection and appraisal and a clear narrative throughout a large body of work.
- Dissertation writing is an exercise in academic commitment and supports students in developing a range of research and written communication skills applicable to future projects in academia and employment.
Disadvantages
- Students and employers may see dissertation writing as less authentic and transferable to a range of employment opportunities than other types of projects set to assess the end of a course.
- Dissertations can be more time-consuming to write and mark than other types of final year assessment.
- Interpretations of marking criteria can be subjective and vary widely between assessors.
Further information and case-studies
Any reflective assessment that focuses on critical analysis of the learning, and/or development that has taken place over a period of time or following a specified event. Typical examples may include learning journals and/or diaries, blogs, audio/video reflections, personal development planning, placement or work-based learning synthesis, reflective essays.
Advantages
- Personalised. Can show originality and creativity.
- Allows students to present and reflect on wide-ranging evidence of achievement to show development over time.
- Good way to bring together synoptic/programme level assessment. Allows supervisors a dynamic view of learner progress.
- Students can demonstrate complex learning outcomes such as critical thinking and analysis.
- Helps develop independent learning and increased learner autonomy.
Disadvantages
- Students may be less familiar with reflective writing and need more support before writing than traditional forms of assessment.
- Need to be clear how each element of the reflective assessment contributes to a mark. Clear instructions/checklist can help guide student effort.
- Time may be needed to ensure learners understand the value and purpose of reflective assessments, e.g. by making explicit links to learning outcomes.
- If introducing a new learning technology (e.g. e-portfolio platform), this involves a learning curve. Allow time for staff development and plan to scaffold learner development.
- Reflective assessment can be time-consuming to mark and interpretations of marking criteria are sometimes subjective.
Further information and case-studies
Questions or tasks designed to assess the application of knowledge, analytical, problem solving, or evaluative skills. This type of coursework can be used for either individual or group assessment.
Examples of set exercises – problem sheets; programming tasks; team-based learning activities; in-tray exercise; problem-based learning activities; translation exercises; reading comprehension exercises.
Advantages
- Can be a good example of authentic assessment, linked to real world situations/data, which also aligns well with assessing ‘real-world’ graduate attributes such as problem-solving.
- Collaborative working on group tasks builds interpersonal skills and prepares students for the workplace.
- Provides a regular opportunity for feedback which the student can then apply to their future learning. Staff can use this form of assessment to shape and adjust their teaching in response to the students’ needs (e.g. revisiting topics, refining a skill).
- Set exercises can encourage students to transfer and assimilate knowledge across a unit.
- This form of assessment provides a useful approach for helping to shift students’ perspective on the purpose of assessment; it can help them to see assessment as a fundamental part of their learning rather than simply as an end-point.
Disadvantages
- Set exercises that involve group working need careful scaffolding and management by the academic.
- Problem sheets – consider whether it’s helpful to provide just the final solution, or whether a fully worked example would help students identify incorrect steps.
- Consider whether students are likely to have had the opportunity to encounter and practice any ‘new’ type of assessment.
Further information and case-studies
This type of coursework results in output from project work, often of a practical nature, other than a dissertation or written report. Examples are diverse and may include a new product, model, design or poster. It can be the product of a group or individual effort.
Supporting learning activity (process) and project output. This type of coursework provides a more creative approach for students to demonstrate their learning.
Advantages
- Promotes application of knowledge to a real-world context. This enables authentic assessment and more opportunities for greater student choice, responsibility and agency.
- Supports students to transfer knowledge across units and offers opportunities for reflection.
- Project work can develop transferable skills (time management, research, and analysis).
- Encourages problem solving and can develop education for sustainable development skills (critical thinking and innovation) and reinforces higher order thinking skills.
- Project output that results in a physical artefact (e.g. a model) can be digitised. For example, a series of photos, a 360o photo or video can be submitted to Moodle if ‘evidence’ is required
Disadvantages
- Consider how to maintain student effort and motivation over a longer period. The learning design may require pre-planned scaffolding activities to aid this.
- Group tasks might be divided into separate tasks completed by individuals, not encouraging the collaboration intended by the assessment design.
- If prior learning has not prepared students for working through setbacks and hurdles, (which is a natural and useful feature of project work) they may need support to navigate this and recognise the value in this type of learning.
- Consider how to support groups to work with others, as some students may have not worked in this way before.
Further information and case-studies
A collection of work that relates to a given topic or theme, which has been produced over a period of time, usually associated with work-based or experiential learning. Portfolios can include diverse forms of material including text, image, audio, notebooks, journals, etc.
Advantages
- Provides a personalised and student-centred approach to assessment allowing the student to demonstrate originality and creativity. Opportunity for digital skills development.
- Allows students to present and reflect on wide-ranging evidence of achievement. Students can showcase their development over time. Allows supervisors a dynamic view of learner progress.
- Good way to bring together synoptic/programme level assessment and encourage students to make links in their learning across units.
- Helps develop independent learning and increased learner autonomy.
- Can offer student choice about what to include in the portfolio by reflecting on their work and choosing best examples.
Disadvantages
- Students may require guidance on how to engage in reflective writing in order for this to be effective.
- Need to be clear how each portfolio element contributes to a mark. Clear instructions/checklist can help guide student effort.
- Assessment workload can be high in terms of student preparation and staff marking.
- Need to be explicit regarding how the evidence in the portfolio links to learning outcomes. This will help assess the quality of the portfolio.
- If introducing a new learning technology (e.g. e-portfolio platform), this involves a learning curve. Allow time for staff development and plan to scaffold learner development.
Further information and case-studies
The visual or recorded presentation of work on a particular topic which does not use a traditional written form. There are many different formats that could be used including posters, infographics, webpages, blogs, podcasts, vlogs, narrated presentations and short films and assessments of this nature can be very authentic. It is essential that clear information on the expected format is provided to students.
Advantages
- This method recognises that presenting incorporates far more than simply verbally communicating information and allows students to showcase their skills and knowledge in a more flexible way. This can be particularly important if students experience anxiety associated with more traditional forms of presenting.
- Enables students to employ a creative range of approaches to presenting information visually. This is very useful for assessing higher order thinking skills where students need to make links between ideas or concepts, as visual presentations can support and evidence this type of thinking.
- Provides an opportunity to develop skills for the modern workplace.
Disadvantages
- Students may not have equitable access to technology.
- Students may not have the existing technological skills required and may need to invest time in familiarising themselves with the technology and developing the digital skills required, in advance. Certain considerations may therefore make the assessment more accessible i.e., introducing the assessment in advance, (giving students the opportunity to develop a greater awareness of any tools required) or highlighting a preferred tool that all students should use.
- Staff need to be confident in providing (appropriate technological) guidance.
Further information and case-studies
An oral presentation on a given topic which could also be followed by a question-and-answer session. The timing and format of the presentation should be specified.
Advantages
- Oral presentations enable us to assess a student’s verbal skill, which is particularly useful when trying to evidence a student’s ability to engage an audience and present ideas in an informative and persuasive way.
- Enables a subject based discussion (promoting greater student engagement, interaction and feedback) with a level of immediacy that might not be provided through other forms of assessment.
- Oral presentations are a principal professional skill in a variety of industries; it is important to provide students with opportunities to practice and hone such skills throughout their academic journey.
Disadvantages
- Fear of presenting, when not appropriately managed and scaffolded via prior opportunities to practise this skill, may undermine a student’s ability to demonstrate their true potential.
- Although students will need to demonstrate verbal skills in future employment, presenting in a traditional format to a large audience is not necessarily something that all graduates will be required to do. Therefore, when using this form of assessment, ensure that it aligns with the course learning outcomes and consider whether more flexible forms of presenting could be used e.g., presenting to smaller groups or pre-recording presentations.
- This form of assessment provides a snapshot of a student’s verbal ability at a specific time, therefore, as with other assessment types it does not necessarily evidence their subject knowledge or ability to apply this in other settings.