Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) can be used as a resource repository but also as an environment to encourage independent student learning. Customised online assignments that can be assembled by the lecturer can be found in teaching resources such as Mastering Biology, developed by Pearson Publishers. In this study, student engagement in both summative and formative assignments was measured...

BACKGROUND Peer marking is an important skill for students, helping them to understand the process of learning and assessment. This method is increasingly used in medical education, particularly in formative assessment. However, the use of peer marking in summative assessment is not widely adopted because many teachers are concerned about biased marking by students of their peers. OBJECTIVE T...

A reliable assessment strategy for allocating different summative marks for individual contributions in groupwork is a perennial problem that using the TeCTra online tool can resolve. By collecting weekly quantitative and qualitative data to support the individualising of contributions and summative marks the tool supports and scaffolds the students’ learning of self and peer assessment underst...

BACKGROUND Despite growing evidence of the benefits of including assessment for learning strategies within programmes of assessment, practical implementation of these approaches is often problematical. Organisational culture change is often hindered by personal and collective beliefs which encourage adherence to the existing organisational paradigm. We aimed to explore how these beliefs influen...

1557-3087/$ – see front matter © 2012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2012.06.0 Abstract This article looks at the effectiveness of the educational portfolio in the summative assessment of the nursing student. Findings of high inter-rater reliability point to the usefulness of the portfolio in summative assessment of competency, if accompanied by the appropriate supportive mechanisms. Shortcom...

Assessment and feedback can make strange bedfellows. Their goals sometimes lie at cross purposes. Summative assessment, for example, is judgmental, telling us whether or not learners have reached a necessary standard; as Konopasek observes, “when practicing summative assessment, we are acting far more as regulators than educators” [1]. Feedback, on the other hand, is developmental, facilitating...

This paper considers alternative assessment, feedback and cybernetics. For more than 30 years, debates about formative and summative assessment have served as surrogates for discussions about the workings of the mind, the social implications of assessment and, as important, the role of instruction in the advancement of learning. Currently, alternative assessment lives uneasily with its classica...