Aligned (UOW Assessment & Feedback Principle)

This principle ensures the validity and reliability of students’ course progress, by ensuring that all subjects consistently address their specific and shared course-level learning outcomes in their learning activities and assessments. This alignment between learning outcome, learning activities and assessment at all levels is referred to as constructive alignment.

Constructive alignment: a principle used for devising teaching and learning activities, and assessment tasks, that directly address the learning outcomes intended in a way not typically achieved in traditional lectures, tutorial classes and examinations (Biggs & Tang, 2011).

To be constructively aligned, assessment should:

1. Clearly address the subject’s learning outcomes in both content and method selected.
2. Be explicitly informed by the subject’s learning activities and experiences.
3. Reflect preceding and subsequent subjects’ learning outcomes to develop course-level outcomes.

These features are explored in greater detail in the following video by Professor Chris Rust and Professor David Boud.

Why?

Considering alignment when designing and conducting learning activities and assessment serves two broad purposes:

• Aids the selection of effective learning activities and experiences, as effective learning activities are useful in helping students to acquire the required knowledge or skills, as outlined in course- and subject-level learning outcomes.
• Ensures assessment is aligned with external standards such as the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and the Higher Education Standards Framework (HESF).

How?

Consider the questions below to evaluate how both new and existing assessments could be strengthened by using new strategies.

Learning Outcomes

Are subject-level and course-level learning outcomes clear to the teaching team and students?

Related Strategies

• Provide opportunities for discussion and questions about learning outcomes.
• Adopt a holistic view of students’ learning by comparing learning outcomes with other subjects in the course.
• Develop an understanding of learning outcomes in preceding and subsequent subjects.

Learning Activities

Are the learning activities planned and delivered in a way that develops subject-level and course-level learning outcomes?

Related Strategies

• Plan activities that support subject-level outcomes in both content and delivery style.
• Explore teaching and learning innovations being applied in your discipline by consulting teaching and learning publications.
• Ensure that your planned activities complement those in preceding and subsequent subjects by arranging meeting across subject teaching teams.

Assessment Design

Do the content and methods of your planned assessments allow students to clearly demonstrate course-level and subject-level learning outcomes?

Related Strategies

• Identify the rationale for each task and use this to guide assessment design.
• Compare planned assessments with those used in subjects running before, concurrently, and after, to ensure students are able to gradually develop appropriate knowledge.
• Identify what students have to do to complete planned assessment and ensure learning activities provide adequate opportunity to prepare these skills.

References

Biggs, & Tang, C. S. (2011). Teaching for quality learning at university : what the student does (4th edition.). McGraw-Hill/Society for Research into Higher Education.