Student surveys across the world have highlighted that students are dissatisfied with the feedback they receive on their assignments and many institutions have been putting plans in place to address this issue. Much of this work has focused on improving the quality of written comments. This paper takes a different perspective. It argues that the…

Ongoing and rapid change is having a significant impact on the social and cultural contexts of assessment in higher education. Change and innovation have been driven not only by advances in our knowledge of effective practice but also by government policies, the latter often resulting in uncertainty regarding the freedoms and responsibilities of…

The study explores students' and lecturers' experiences of group work assessment in a performing arts department that includes undergraduate studies in theatre, dance and film. Working from the perspective that assessment is a socially situated practice informed by, and mediated through, the socio-political context within which it occurs, this…

The ethical work of program evaluators is based on a covenant of honesty and transparency among stakeholders. Yet even under the most favorable evaluation conditions, threats to ethical standards exist and muddle that covenant. Unfortunately, ethical issues associated with different evaluation structures and contracting arrangements have received…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the reliability and validity of a Turkish adaptation of Technology-Rich Outcomes-Focused Learning Environment Inventory (TROFLEI) which was developed by Aldridge, Dorman, and Fraser. A sample of 985 students from 16 high schools (Grades 9-12) participated in the study. Translation process followed…

Educational achievement is a very important issue for parents, teachers, and the government. An accurate measurement plays a very important role in evaluating achievement fairly, and, therefore, analysis methods have been developed considerably in recent years. Education based on long-time learning processes forms a fruitful base for item tests,…

When examining various evaluation prescriptive theories comparatively, we find it helpful to have a framework showing how they are related that highlights features that distinguish theoretical perspectives, thus a "theory" about theories. The evaluation theory tree that we presented in Alkin's recent book, "Evaluation Roots"…

This study looks at the fairness of assessing learning journals both as the fairness in creating a valid and robust marking process as well as how different student groups may have unfair disadvantages in performing well in reflective assessment tasks. The fairness of a marking process is discussed through reflecting on the practical process and…

The 2009 college football season is here, but there has been a continuing controversy swirling over how the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) selects its national champion. College football uses a multi-criterion decision matrix (MCDM) evaluation technique to determine which two teams will play for the national championship. We analyzed the BCS…

Multiple factors have influenced testing agencies to more carefully consider the manner and frequency in which pretest item data are collected and analyzed. One potentially promising development is judges' estimates of item difficulty. Accurate estimates of item difficulty may be used to reduce pretest samples sizes, supplement insufficient…

Purpose: This paper aims to reflect on the relevance of the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) of the European University Association (EUA) to universities' quality improvement. It aims to analyse IEP follow-up reports to determine whether the programme contributes to the development of a quality improvement culture.…

The purpose of the recently proposed "p[subscript rep]" statistic is to estimate the probability of concurrence, that is, the probability that a replicate experiment yields an effect of the same sign (Killeen, 2005a). The influential journal "Psychological Science" endorses "p[subscript rep]" and recommends its use…

Group projects are an established but debated pedagogical technique in higher education. The purpose of this study was to assess the appropriateness of combining individual and group marks in assessment. A mixed method design involving correlational and comparative elements was used. The sample included one cohort of students who completed a group…

Evaluative instruments designed to assess a university's or college's institutionalization of service-learning practices have been devised and widely utilized. These instruments often come with assumptions about aligning data with decision making. To date, attempts to document community engagement practices within a department or an entire…

Constraints in resourcing and student dissatisfaction with assessment feedback mean that the effectiveness of our feedback practices has never been so important. Drawing on findings from a three-year study focused on student engagement with feedback, this paper reveals the limited extent to which effectiveness can be accurately measured and…