Authentic assessment is often positioned as an educational panacea, invoked in response to a broad range of complex problems. This paper considers authentic assessment in relation to three key challenges: preparing graduates for the future, cheating, and inclusion. Despite literature supporting its potential benefits, there is limited evidence on…

Examinations are viewed as one of the least inclusive forms of assessment. Attainment gaps between different student groups (e.g. based on ethnicity) are more pronounced in examinations than in coursework, perhaps because feedback on performance is commonplace for coursework yet rare for examinations. We developed, and explored evidence for, a…

Student feedback literacy has been the subject of much conceptual literature; however, relatively little intervention research has investigated how and if it can be developed. Further, no evaluation of the current empirical literature has been conducted to assess which elements of feedback literacy can be successfully improved in practice, and…

Many interventions have been developed by staff to support students in understanding assessment task requirements and summative and formative feedback. However, to various extents, these approaches assume a shared understanding of the, often indeterminate, language used in assessment. This article reports on a project, which aimed to explore…

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are routinely used for evaluation of instructional faculty in universities. However, studies have shown that SET use often contributes to inequities in tenure, promotion and salary outcomes, especially for women and underrepresented groups. Research suggests a need for a universal conceptualization of…

It is widely believed that an essential property of feedback's effectiveness is its timeliness, and students frequently report untimely feedback as a significant source of dissatisfaction in their studies. Most UK universities have responded by implementing institutional policies that stipulate a time-period within which students should receive…

This article presents the results of a systematic literature review on student contributions to quality assurance processes in higher education. The research had three main outcomes: the first identified relevant studies on the subject under investigation. The second, more innovative, analysed the main issues related to student participation,…

Typically, students view classroom assessments like tests, exams, reports, and essays as a major stressor in higher education. However, it is also plausible that students have experienced instances in which the purposes, format, and design of classroom assessment actually supports their well-being. We used a qualitative descriptive design to…

While key attributes of effective feedback have frequently been included in studies on student learning, little research has focused on the impact of the timeliness of feedback on student motivation. By providing students with written feedback at 1, 3, 7, 10, or 14 days after submission, this mixed design study enriches our understanding of the…

Students' emotions have been increasingly examined in feedback research. Socioculturally positioned research has particularly noted that emotions do not exist in a vacuum but are contextually situated, which also holds true for feedback encounters. In this scoping review, we provide a synthesis of earlier studies on emotions in feedback in higher…

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) systems demonstrate impressive capabilities in providing various forms of feedback. However, claims to its potential overlook a fundamental aspect of effective feedback between humans: recognition between teacher and student. This paper critically examines the role of GenAI in providing feedback within…

Exemplars are key examples chosen to represent designated levels of competence or quality. This study attempts to explore the use of exemplars in a Chinese-English translation teaching context. It involved the teacher-researcher using three exemplars of different quality to help 31 third-year translation majors evaluate their own translation and…

Student evaluations of teaching can be unreliable indicators of effective teaching and affected by implicit bias. We conduct a randomized experiment at a selective U.S. liberal arts college in which we vary both the instrument and timing at which we solicit student feedback to assess whether either intervention can mitigate gender disparities in…

Higher education aims to educate diverse professionals to operate in an increasingly complex world. Yet, academic assessment practices still rely upon standardisation, namely, that all students should demonstrate their achievement in ways that are largely comparable, if not identical. In this study, we theorise assessment standardisation as a…

Feedback can be powerful, but its effects are dependent on what students do. There has been intensive research in recent years under the banner of 'feedback literacy' to understand how to help students make the most of feedback. Although there are instruments to measure feedback literacy, they largely measure perceptions and orientations rather…