Assessing the Contributions of Higher Education

Assessing the Contributions of Higher Education
Author: Simon Marginson
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2023-02-14
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1035307170

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Despite the broad engagement of higher education institutions in most social sectors, limited thinking and hyper-individualistic approaches have dominated discussions of their value to society. Advocating a more rigorous and comprehensive approach, this insightful book discusses the broad range of contributions made by higher education and the many issues entailed in theorising, observing, measuring and evaluating those contributions.

Assessment, Learning and Judgement in Higher Education

Assessment, Learning and Judgement in Higher Education
Author: Gordon Joughin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2008-12-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1402089058

There has been a remarkable growth of interest in the assessment of student learning and its relation to the process of learning in higher education over the past ten years. This interest has been expressed in various ways – through large scale research projects, international conferences, the development of principles of assessment that supports learning, a growing awareness of the role of feedback as an integral part of the learning process, and the publication of exemplary assessment practices. At the same time, more limited attention has been given to the underlying nature of assessment, to the concerns that arise when assessment is construed as a measurement process, and to the role of judgement in evaluating the quality of students’ work. It is now timely to take stock of some of the critical concepts that underpin our understanding of the multifarious relationships between assessment and learning, and to explicate the nature of assessment as judgement. Despite the recent growth in interest noted above, assessment in higher education remains under-conceptualized. This book seeks to make a significant contribution to conceptualizing key aspects of assessment, learning and judgement.

Improving Quality in American Higher Education

Improving Quality in American Higher Education
Author: Richard Arum
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2016-05-31
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1119268508

An ambitious, comprehensive reimagining of 21st century higher education Improving Quality in American Higher Education outlines the fundamental concepts and competencies society demands from today's college graduates, and provides a vision of the future for students, faculty, and administrators. Based on a national, multidisciplinary effort to define and measure learning outcomes—the Measuring College Learning project—this book identifies 'essential concepts and competencies' for six disciplines. These essential concepts and competencies represent efforts towards articulating a consensus among faculty in biology, business, communication, economics, history, and sociology—disciplines that account for nearly 40 percent of undergraduate majors in the United States. Contributions from thought leaders in higher education, including Ira Katznelson, George Kuh, and Carol Geary Schneider, offer expert perspectives and persuasive arguments for the need for greater clarity, intentionality, and quality in U.S. higher education. College faculty are our best resource for improving the quality of undergraduate education. This book offers a path forward based on faculty perspectives nationwide: Clarify program structure and aims Articulate high-quality learning goals Rigorously measure student progress Prioritize higher order competencies and disciplinarily grounded conceptual understandings A culmination of over two years of efforts by faculty and association leaders from six disciplines, this book distills the national conversation into a delineated set of fundamental ideas and practices, and advocates for the development and use of rigorous assessment tools that are valued by faculty, students, and society. Improving Quality in American Higher Education brings faculty voices to the fore of the conversation and offers an insightful look at the state of higher education, and a realistic strategy for better serving our students.

Exemplars of Assessment in Higher Education

Exemplars of Assessment in Higher Education
Author: Jane Marie Souza
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2023-07-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000978834

Co-published with “While assessment may feel to constituents like an activity of accountability simply for accreditors, it is most appropriate to approach assessment as an activity of accountability for students. Assessment results that improve institutional effectiveness, heighten student learning, and better align resources serve to make institutions stronger for the benefit of their students, and those results also serve the institution or program well during the holistic evaluation required through accreditation.” – from the foreword by Heather Perfetti, President of the Middle States Commission on Higher EducationColleges and universities struggle to understand precisely what is being asked for by accreditors, and this book answers that question by sharing examples of success reported by schools specifically recommended by accreditors. This compendium gathers examples of assessment practice in twenty-four higher education institutions: twenty-three in the U.S. and one in Australia. All institutions represented in this book were suggested by their accreditor as having an effective assessment approach in one or more of the following assessment focused areas: assessment in the disciplines, co-curricular, course/program/institutional assessment, equity and inclusion, general education, online learning, program review, scholarship of teaching and learning, student learning, or technology. These examples recommended by accrediting agencies makes this a unique contribution to the assessment literature.The book is organized in four parts. Part One is focused on student learning and assessment and includes ten chapters. The primary focus for Part Two is student learning assessment from a disciplinary perspective and includes four chapters. Part Three has a faculty engagement and assessment focus, and Part Four includes four chapters on institutional effectiveness and assessment, with a focus on strategic planning.This book is a publication of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE), an organization of practitioners interested in using effective assessment practice to document and improve student learning.

Assessment of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education

Assessment of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education
Author: Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2018-03-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3319743384

This book offers a comprehensive overview of current, innovative approaches to assessing generic and domain-specific learning outcomes in higher education at both national and international levels. It discusses the most significant initiatives over the past decade to develop objective, valid, and reliable assessment tools and presents state-of-the-art procedures to adapt and validate them for use in other countries. The authors highlight key conceptual and methodological challenges connected with intra-national and cross-national assessment of learning outcomes in higher education; introduce novel approaches to improving assessment, evaluation, testing, and measurement practices; and offer exemplary implementation frameworks. Further, they examine the results of and lessons learned from various recent, world-renowned research programs and feasibility studies, and present results from their own studies to provide new insights into how to draw valid conclusions about learning outcomes achieved in various contexts.

Innovative Assessment in Higher Education

Innovative Assessment in Higher Education
Author: Cordelia Bryan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-04-03
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0429015577

Contextualising why assessment is still the single most important factor affecting student learning in higher education, this second edition of Innovative Assessment in Higher Education: A Handbook for Academic Practitioners offers a critical discourse about the value of assessment for learning alongside practical suggestions about how to enhance the student experience of assessment and feedback. With 17 new chapters this edition: contextualises assessment within the current higher education landscape; explores how student, parent and government expectations impact on assessment design; presents case studies on how to develop, incorporate and assess employability skills; reviews how technology and social media can be used to enhance assessment and feedback; provides examples and critical review of the use and development of feedback practices and how to assess professional, creative and performance-based subjects; offers guidance on how to develop assessment that is inclusive and enables all students to advance their potential. Bridging the gap between theory and the practical elements of assessment, Innovative Assessment in Higher Education: A Handbook for Academic Practitioners is an essential resource for busy academics looking to make a tangible difference to their academic practice and their students’ learning. This practical and accessible guide will aid both new and more experienced practitioners looking to learn more about how and why assessment in higher education can make such a difference to student learning.

Universities and the Sustainable Development Future

Universities and the Sustainable Development Future
Author: Peter H. Koehn
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2017-04-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1315449951

This study provides institutions of higher learning around the world with new and inclusive guidelines that can be applied contextually to produce credible evidence regarding the outcome and impact of their teaching, research, societal-outreach, governance, and partnering activities with regard to sustainable development. The 2015 International Year of Evaluation is behind us and post-2015 Sustainable-Development Goals are coming into play. Donors, the public, international organizations, and higher-education participants need to know if universities are advancing sustainable development. Although university involvement in sustainable-development research, teaching, and outreach has increased substantially, systematic learning from higher-education engagements has been disappointing and the extent to which university initiatives have influenced sustainable development, particularly in the Global South, is widely contested. This book presents and demonstrates the utility of a flexible framework that will inspire substantial contextually based improvements in the ways universities evaluate and, therefore, activate and improve their sustainable-development undertakings. It provides a cutting-edge resource for students, scholars, university leaders, and policy drivers at all levels of governance who are concerned with contemporary higher education, sustainable development, climate change, and evaluation challenges.

Rethinking Assessment in Higher Education

Rethinking Assessment in Higher Education
Author: David Boud
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2007-03-28
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1134152140

Assessment is a value-laden activity surrounded by debates about academic standards, preparing students for employment, measuring quality and providing incentives. There is substantial evidence that assessment, rather than teaching, has the major influence on students’ learning. It directs attention to what is important and acts as an incentive for study. This book revisits assessment in higher education, examining it from the point of view of what assessment does and can do and argues that assessment should be seen as an act of informing judgement and proposes a way of integrating teaching, learning and assessment to better prepare students for a lifetime of learning. It is essential reading for practitioners and policy makers in higher education institutions in different countries, as well as for educational development and institutional research practitioners.