Integrating assessment with learning

Professor Sally Brown
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Higher Education Diversity in Learning and Teaching at Leeds Metropolitan University, with responsibility for Assessment, Learning and Teaching strategy and policy and cultural partnerships. Also Visiting Professor at Robert Gordon University.

Assessment impacts substantially on student learning and I assert that the single most useful thing we can do for our students is to design assessment processes and strategies that link fully with the learning process. Students often regard marks like money and will only spend their energies where they see real pay-off, so we need to design assessments that prompt them into actions and behaviours that enhance their learning experiences substantially. In this participative presentation I will explore a 'fit-for-purpose' model of assessment that asks us to interrogate five key questions in relation to assessment, to ensure that students and staff find the process manageable, inclusive, authentic and constructively aligned.

Sally Brown is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Assessment, Learning and Teaching) and Professor of Higher Education Diversity in Teaching and Learning at Leeds Metropolitan University. She was for five years Director of Membership Services for the Institute for Learning and Teaching (now the Higher Education Academy ). Prior to that she worked at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for almost 20 years as a lecturer, educational developer and Head of Quality Enhancement.

Selected Authored Books

• At press - Assessing live and practical skills, with Ruth Pickford, due for publication Spring 2006 Routledge
• 'Essential tips for conference and event management', With Phil Race, Fiona Campbell and Alison Robinson, Kogan Page, June 2003
• 'Lecturing - a practical guide' (with Phil Race), Kogan Page 2002.
• 'The ILTA guide: Inspiring Learning about teaching and assessment' (with Phil Race), ILT, 2001.
• 'The Lecturers Toolkit' (with Phil Race), Kogan Page 1998
• 'Assess your own Teaching Quality: a handbook for self assessment of teaching', Kogan Page, 1995 (with Phil Race).
• '500 Tips for Teachers', Kogan Page 1995 (with Phil Race and Carolyn Earlam) (also translated into Malaysian).
• 'Assessing Learners in Higher Education', (with Peter Knight, Kogan Page, 1994.