2.+Assessment

=Assessment=

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**So what do we mean by Assessment/Assessing?**
Assessment is one of the most significant areas of an educational system. It defines what students take to be important, how they spend much of their academic time and in many ways how they value themselves. (JISC, 2011)

An assessment thus is a process where the student documents his/her experience in a course in measureable terms that may include elements of knowledge and skills acquired, attitudes and beliefs. (You can refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy for more information on learning domains.)

Rowntree (1987) states that assessment is an important component of the learning and teaching process, as students cannot escape it. Boud (1995, p. 35) states that:


 * Students can, with difficulty, escape from the effects of poor teaching, they cannot (by definition if they want to graduate) escape the effects of poor assessment.

These statements underline the importance of good assessment design and practices for our students.

According to JISC (2001), an assessment serves two main purposes in adult education:


 * 1) Assessment plays an important role in assisting learner development. It is important to **align your assessment(s) with the learning outcomes of the course** and **to incorporate it as an integral part of the learning process**.
 * 2) Assessment plays an important role in **determining/improving the overall education system**. It is an **evaluative tool** for us to determine the **changes/improves that need to be made to improve the education journey of our students**.

An assessment is the measure of **the student’s learning in a course** and at the **same time is a measure of your teaching**.