This guide is intended to support a shared understanding of assessment terminology between students and staff. This is not an exhaustive list of terms related to assessment and many come from a range of university policies and procedures, so for additional guidance on these terms review the relevant Academic Regulations. It is intended to be a useful resource to explain some of the terms associated with assessment and other related learning and teaching terms that will especially help students.
[NB: This is a resource that is in development, so some of the definitions/terms are still to be written or revised. We welcome your comments/contributions to the document.]
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Anonymous Marking | Anonymous marking is where students’ work is marked without the marker having access to the students’ names. Some assessment tasks cannot be anonymously marked, for example performances, production of artefacts, major projects and dissertations. |
| Academic Offence |
An academic offence is where a student commits any act which is intended to evade and undermine the university’s processes for rigorous and fair assessment. Academic offences include plagiarism, cheating, collusion, copying work and reuse of your own work, among others. |
| Academic Adviser | This is an academic member of staff who is a key point of contact and support. Academic advisers provide guidance on academic and professional issues and can signpost other university services for support with personal issues. |
| Assessment | Assessment is the way that students’ learning and understanding is tested, and the way in which the university is assured that students have met the learning outcomes for each unit. Each unit has one or more assessment tasks, linked to relevant learning outcomes. Successful completion of unit assessment tasks, as measured by a pass mark in the unit, leads to the award of credit. |
| Assessment: Formative | These are assessment tasks which are designed to help students learn more effectively and to improve their performance. Formative assessments do not contribute to the marks awarded for the unit. |
| Assessment: Summative | These are assessment tasks are designed to test students’ ability to meet the unit learning outcomes. Summative assessments count towards the unit mark which a student achieves and towards the award of credit. |
| Assessment Methods |
These define how much each unit assessment task is ‘worth’ in the unit. For example a unit’s assessment weightings might be as follows: Presentation & report - 50% |
| Coursework | This is a generic term for assessment tasks which are not formal exams. |
| Credit |
Credit is a way of quantifying student achievement in terms of the volume of study undertaken, and the level of challenge of the study. Credit is associated to units which have both a credit value and level, e.g. 20 credits at level 6 (i.e. final year). Credit is awarded to a student on successful completion of the unit. The levels of credit are defined by the Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications of UK Degree-Awarding Bodies. Levels 4, 5 and 6 equate to an undergraduate honours degree and level 7 denotes postgraduate-level study. |
| Double Marking | This is when two markers assess a piece of work independently (i.e. don’t see the first marker’s comments or mark) and agree a mark together. |
| Exam | An exam is a time-limited assessment usually occurring at the end of the unit. Exams can be seen, where the student is provided with the question(s) in advance, or unseen. |
| External Examiner | External examiners are subject experts appointed from other universities or from industry to review the assessment process and students’ work. They ensure that the university’s awards are comparable in standard to awards granted by other institutions and confirm that they comply with national threshold standards and that the assessment of students is fair. |
| Feedback | Feedback is provided to students either verbally, in writing, or electronically on the assessments they have submitted. Feedback is intended to explain the mark which the student has achieved and to highlight strengths and areas for improvement. |
| Feedforward | Feedforward is information provided to students to help them improve their future work – it is forward looking rather than focused on assessments which have already been completed. |
| Generic Assessment Criteria |
These criteria are set in university policy and explain the requirements a student should meet in their assessed work in order to achieve a mark in a particular band, e.g. 50-59%, 60-69%. The BU generic assessment criteria also provide students with feedforward statements to aid in improving future work. These criteria can be contextualised to specific disciplines/assessments. |
| Moderation | Moderation ensures that assessment criteria have been applied appropriately and that assessment outcomes are fair and reliable. Moderation focuses on the range of marks across the assessment task via sampling and mark reviews, rather than on a student’s individual piece of work. |
| Peer Assessment | An assessment task, either formative or summative, in which students provide feedback and/or an indicative mark on the work of other students. |
| Plagiarism |
Plagiarism is the deliberate attempt to gain advantage by presenting any work, data or concepts that are not the student’s own as if they were. Plagiarism can be defined as the significant use of other people's work and the submission of it as though it were one's own in assessed coursework. |
| Programme | A programme is a collection of units at defined levels of study which form a coherent learning experience. Successful completion of a programme leads to the conferment of an award, e.g. BA (Hons) English; MSc Computing. Programmes may also be called courses. |
| Programme Management | A team which has the overall academic management, development and quality assurance/enhancement of a group of programmes or subject area. Each faculty has a number of programmes and programme management teams. |
| Programme Outcomes |
Programme outcomes convey the level of intellectual demand and challenge set by the programme, with reference to the Frameworks for Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications of UK Degree-Awarding Bodies. They identify what a typical student should know and be able to do when they finish the programme. Knowledge and understanding |
| Second Marking | Second marking is where an assessment task is independently marked by more than one member of academic staff. The second marker has access to the mark and feedback given by the first marker. It is part of our process to ensure that student work is marked fairly and equitably across a range of marks. In other words, it is our internal moderation process (see moderation definition). |
| SITs | This is the student records system that BU uses. |
| Turnitin | Turnitin is piece of software which allows electronic submission of students’ written work, and can detect whether the work has been plagiarised (copied from other sources). |
| Unit | A standalone learning package with defined content, learning outcomes and one or more assessment tasks. |
| Unit Learning Outcomes | Unit learning outcomes define the thing |
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