In this study, we sought to understand assessment-related attitudes and authentic experiences of evaluation anxiety with a sample of first-year university students. We focused on identifying: (a) why students had reported high levels of anxiety on a recent, grade-bearing assessment, and (b) how their attitudes toward assessment type and weighting…

One of the main goals of statistics is to use data to provide evidence in support of an argument. This article will discuss some popular forms of writing assessments currently in use, to demonstrate the differences between the methods for structuring the students' learning to support their arguments with evidence. We share a model, which was…

Instructors consistently complain about students not reading or using feedback. To address this issue, the authors designed an in-class feedback exercise. The authors found that when students recognize the importance of feedback on writing assignments, they look forward to getting, reading, and using such feedback, and instructor efficacy…

Teaching the general psychology course provides instructors with the opportunity to invite students to explore the dynamics of behavior and mental processes through the lens of theory and research. Three innovative writing assignments were developed to teach students to think like a psychologist, operationalized as enhancing critical thinking,…

Students in Chemistry 254: Organic Chemistry for Majors were required to write a paper about an organic name reaction. Before turning in this assignment, students had the option of attending a one-hour library instruction session covering SciFinder, sources for spectra, ACS Style, and print resources about organic name reactions. Twenty-five…

This paper adds to the nascent literature on teaching research methods and what students learn from courses and assessment. Postgraduate students are often confronted with large amounts of reading, and the content of material can be intimidating. Convincing them also to engage critically with readings is even more difficult. We report on a…

This study used an online peer assessment activity to help 47 college students to learn biology through writing. Each student submitted a biology writing report to an online system and then experienced three rounds of peer assessment. During the online peer assessment process, self, peer and expert evaluation scores for the writing were gathered…

Computer technology is expanding our profession's conception of composing, allowing visual information to play a substantial role in an increasing variety of composition assignments. This expansion, however, creates a major problem: How does one assess student work on these assignments? Current work in assessment provides only partial answers to…

Wikiality, Wikimania, WikiGnomes, Wikitrolls, Wikibots, Wikipediaholism... all these neologisms have been coined in recent years to talk about Wikipedia, the online, open-source encyclopedia. In this article, the author describes a project that aims to craft a pedagogical approach that incorporated student-contribution to Wikipedia in order to…

Contract grading has achieved some prominence in our field as a practice associated with critical pedagogy. In this context we describe a hybrid grading contract where students earn a course grade of B based not on our evaluation of their writing quality but solely on their completion of the specified activities. The contract lists activities…

This article used work from the writing assessment literature to develop a framework for assessing the impact and perceived value of written, audio, and combined written and audio feedback strategies across four global and 22 discrete dimensions of feedback. Using a quasi-experimental research design, students at three U.S. universities were…

This small scale action research study investigated the experiences of learners over two iterations as they completed a patchwork text assignment within the digital medium of a personal learning system (PLS). The aim was to investigate the extent to which using a PLS can facilitate formative and collaborative feedback to assist student learning. A…

The Department of Accounting at California State University Northridge (CSUN) has developed a unique sequence of courses designed to ensure that accounting students are trained not only in technical accounting, but also acquire critical thinking, research and communication skills. The courses have proven effective and have embedded assessment…

Assessment provides feedback to teachers so that instruction can be modified. It also provides feedback to students during and after the course. Discusses approaches to assessment in geology courses that relate assessment to instruction. Three student assignments are described: (1) Personal Question Sheets; (2) a report on Personal/Social Issues…

Intended for both beginning and experienced teachers at the secondary and college levels as well as teacher educators and assessment teams, this book reviews strengths and weaknesses of the major types of writing assessment, both for large-scale evaluations and for the individual classroom. The book includes: practical examples, applications, and…