UCL CENTRE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING AND TEACHING

Details

• Author(s): Dr Jenny Marie and Dr Rosalind Duhs
• Title: Skills in Higher Education
  
• Subject: HE - Education
• Keywords: UKOER, UKPSF, OMAC, CPD4HE, skills, higher education
  
• Language(s): English
• Material type(s): Text, Presentation, Audio
  
• File format(s): ZIP, HTML, PDF, DOC, PPT, MP3
• File size: Various
• Publish Date: 23rd September 2011
  
• Licence: CC-BY-NC-SA

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Licence

Skills in Higher Education by Dr Jenny Marie and Dr Rosalind Duhs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Introduction - Assessing Key Skills

Assessment tasks embed key skills

There is a seldom recognised truth which underlies this section of these open educational resources. It is that you can only assess visible learning. When that learning is made visible, a key skill is inevitably involved. Students have to speak, write, draw, design or demonstrate to make their learning visible. They will not do as well as they might if they have not been supported in the development of the skills they need for the relevant assessment task/s. Key skills are therefore automatically integrated into the assessment process. They are always assessed but that aspect of assessment may not be identified, articulated, or taken into account. The aim of this resource is therefore to suggest ways of making the assessment of key skills an important recognised part of assessment.

All-round development and employability: assessment shapes learning

Key skills are important for both academic work and students’ chances of finding graduate-level work. They are often implicitly present in approaches to learning at university but students and academic staff may not be aware of them so they are not identified. It is advantageous if this omission can be remedied because students need to be able to articulate their skills to potential employers. They can only develop them further if they know where they are present in the curriculum and how they are assessed.

Learning is shaped by assessment. When students know that there will be an assessment task which embeds a particular set of skills, they are more likely to focus on refining those skills. It is therefore motivating to integrate key skills in the learning outcomes which are to be assessed.

Licence

Skills in Higher Education by Dr Jenny Marie and Dr Rosalind Duhs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Assessing Key Skills

Licence

Skills in Higher Education by Dr Jenny Marie and Dr Rosalind Duhs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at www.ucl.ac.uk.