Thanks Rachel – this is very helpful.

 

Certainly, whether a tariff approach is taken or not, a realistic and honest approach to the amount of student time that should normally be devoted to assessed work is a really valuable idea. Explicitness and clarity about this would also be of assistance in helping students to plan how to make use of their  ‘independent study’ time effectively (and staff in guiding them to do so).

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

 

 

 

John Knight

Academic Developer & Learning Development Tutor

Bucks New University

Queen Alexandra Road

High Wycombe

Bucks

HP11 2JZ

 

Room N1.03

01494 522 141 ext. 4550

bucks.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Dear John

 

We have a rule of thumb that assessment should take up 25% of the student’s allocated time for the unit - so for a 10 credit unit which should take 100 hours, they would spend 25 hours working on the assignment. There are obviously exceptions (dissertations, for example).

 

However, we have always resisted the idea of a tariff for the size assignment tasks; there is just too much variety in the type of task and the processes involved in their completion. We do provide guidance here on trying to determine an assignment size http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/assessment/design/size.php

 

Consistency is really important, but we think that should come in the way in which information is provided. I think it’s up to staff to explain why there might be differences between assignment sizes, even on the same programme.

 

I’m sure this isn’t very helpful for what you want!

 

Best wishes

 

Rachel

 

 

 

Hi all

 

We are looking to increase consistency in assessment workload across our courses to ensure parity and avoid over-assessment

 

I wondered if any of you had standardised institutional practices re the way that assessment activities and related student work are linked to credits? For example, an approach whereby a Level 3-7 module worth 15 credits is linked to coursework of 3000-word equivalent and 30 credits to 6000-word equivalent seems something of a sector norm.

 

Also, do you have institutional approach to the proportion of the notional working hours of a module that it would be normal to expect to be spent on the completion of assessment tasks. For example, Bloxham and Boyd (2007) suggest 20-30% of learning hours

 

Any thoughts, suggestions or examples would be very much welcomed

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

 

 

 

John Knight

Academic Developer & Learning Development Tutor

Bucks New University

Queen Alexandra Road

High Wycombe

Bucks

HP11 2JZ

 

Room N1.03

01494 522 141 ext. 4550

bucks.ac.uk

 

 

 

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