Middlesex University announces its winter conference on Formative 
Assessment to be held at Holbourn Union Building, Archway Campus on Friday 
12 December from 9.30 - 3.30.

There will be two keynote speakers who will also facilitate workshops during 
the day. Other workshops will be facilitated by Middlesex colleagues. 

The speakers are Professor Margaret Price, Director Assessment Standards 
Knowledge Exchange, Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Business 
School, Oxford Brookes University and Professor David Nicol, Deputy-Director 
of the Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement at the 
University of Strathclyde and Director of the REAP project. 

The cost for the day, which covers all refreshments and lunch, is £50. To 
reserve a place please contact Karen Ridout (020 8411 5018 
[log in to unmask]).

Archway campus is in North London, next to Archway Underground Station. 
There is no visitor parking available except for disabled drivers. 

Details of keynote lectures and guest workshops: - 

Professor Margaret Price:

Keynote: Shaping assessment for the future Assessment is a central part of 
the student learning experience yet its poor ratings in student satisfaction 
surveys and 'under performance' in quality reviews confirms what research has 
been saying for some time, that is, we 'must do better!' . This keynote will 
consider how we should shape assessment in the future by recognising the 
complexity of assessment in higher education, the nature of assessment 
standards and the extent of student engagement with the assessment 
process.
The starting point is purpose, what is assessment for? The multiple and 
interdependent purposes of assessment are often at odds with each other and 
choices need to be made about which purpose is the most important in which 
circumstances to prevent mixed messages. Lack of clarity over purpose is 
matched by uncertainty about assessment standards. Understanding of 
assessment standards underpins many aspects of assessment and yet many 
beliefs, myths and assumptions that underpin our, and our students, 
understandings of assessment standards are flawed. This in turn has 
repercussions for students' effectiveness as learners; marking consistency and 
reliability, quality assurance. By examining the nature of assessment standards 
and how we share our understandings of those standards between ourselves 
and with students we can start to envision a more engaging and meaningful 
environment for students. The presentation will include discussion of a 
manifesto for change being championed by ASKe, Centre for Excellence in 
Teaching and Learning.

Workshop: 'Examining your feedback processes - engaging or disengaging?' 
Workshop will draw on research to consider why students do or don't engage 
with their feedback. Participants will be encouraged to make an honest 
evaluation of their approaches to providing feedback and draw up action plans 
to make feedback more effective. 


Professor David Nichol:

Keynote: Enhancing feedback to students in mass higher education 

The National Student Survey shows that students are dissatisfied with 
assessment and feedback more than with any other aspect of their course. 
Teachers are, however, concerned that increasing the provision of high quality 
feedback, particularly in large classes, will inevitably lead to increased 
workload. In this presentation/workshop it will be argued that in mass higher 
education, written feedback which is essentially a monologue is now trying to 
carry the full burden of dialogue between the teacher and student. This is 
distorting feedback mechanisms, increasing staff workload and pushing 
students towards a passive approach to learning. To address this situation it 
is argued that we must reintroduce dialogue in learning by rethinking the 
sources, form and timing of feedback and the role of the student in these 
processes. New technologies have the power to support an enhanced 
feedback model where feedback is dialogical, shared, varied and ongoing. 
In this presentation/workshop principles of effective feedback will be proposed 
and examples of technology-supported practices outlined. The presentation 
will draw on the findings of the Re-engineering Assessment Practices (REAP) 
project, funded by the Scottish Funding Council under its e-Learning 
Transformation initiative (see www.reap.ac.uk). REAP showed that learning 
gains could be delivered without increases in staff time.

Workshop: From Principles to practice: Improving feedback in the disciplines. 
This workshop will provide an opportunity for academic staff to think about 
how they might apply the assessment and feedback principles to improve their 
own practice. 

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further queries
Dr Michelle Haynes, Educational Developer,
Centre for Learning and Quality Enhancement
Middlesex University

020 8411 6828