Assessment is an important and integral part of the teaching and learning process. Grading serves the purpose of rating a student’s performance. Grading, however is only part of assessment. When done properly, assessment can cue instructors on whether learning is happening and guide them on how to proceed with instruction. Good assessment holistically measures learners’ current and developing skills.
In FEU, assessment is a joint process that involves both teacher and learners. It is fair, transparent and is based on standards set by the FEU community and benchmarked against other top universities, local and international quality assurance organizations and various government agencies.
Academic Integrity
The most important measure of the FEU students’ uprightness is their respect for and adherence to academic integrity. Academic integrity is based on the idea that the work for which students are assessed and graded are a true reflection of their ideas, knowledge, and skills. When students cheat on a test or plagiarize on a paper or project the grade they get is not a true reflection of their ideas, knowledge, and or skill. Assessment then becomes inaccurate or even false.
Academic integrity also includes the respect for and adherence to the conventions of the forms of academic output (e.g. documentation rules for research papers, rules in debate) regardless of how rigid and seemingly tedious they are. Students with academic integrity acknowledge ideas and information that is not their own and builds upon ideas that are their own.
Students who cut and paste a paper together with incomplete or no citation do a miniscule amount of work and misrepresent themselves. The academic requirement submitted deserves a failing mark. Compare that work to the work of students who thought out the issues and problems, found various sources and cited them properly and wrote out all this themselves. In this second case, a greater effort was exerted and learning most probably occurred.
A fuller explanation of academic integrity is contained in the FEU policy on academic integrity. All FEU students are expected to adhere to this policy and failure to do so will be met with strict sanctions.
Transparency
Assessment at FEU works on the premise that students are the owners and creators of their grades; faculty supply the guidelines, rubrics, and systems with which the grades are determined. Faculty act as a fair and “disinterested” judge and the students are the ones who actually determine their grades. Transparency is an important value in proper assessment and all matters pertaining to assessment, including the content of the assessment or what will be asked, should be known to the students. As such, there should be:
- a course outline made available to the students on the very first day of class (ideally, even before the first day of class) that indicates all the assessments that will be required;
- full disclosure of the type of formative and summative assessments indicated in the course outline and an explanation of the weight or percentage of each assessment to the final grade;
- clear distinctions between and among formative and summative assessments and clear time gaps for when assessments are given;
- rubrics for evaluation of assessments that are available for students to consider and even negotiate;
- record of grades available to students at all times and consultation on grades throughout the term;
- active mechanisms for feedback to students;
- student awareness of the QPA and its function as an indicator of academic achievement or underachievement.
Formative and Summative Assessments
FEU places a premium on the students’ learning journey and the process and deepening of learning, critical and creative thinking, reflection, and problem solving. Formative assessments (FA) are important for this as they are tools that help identify learning gaps and help shape learning. In FEU, formative assessments may be graded or ungraded and should occur throughout the semester. Formative assessments should refer to specific or smaller parts of the course. Its function is to build micro knowledges and skills that are translated in preparing for and achieving better opportunities for summative assessments. The more formative assessments, the higher the chance of learning.
Summative assessments (SA) evaluate student learning, knowledge, proficiency, or success at the conclusion of an instructional period like a unit, course, or program. In FEU, summative assessments are always graded.
| FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT | SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT |
| Quiz (short-long)SeatworkReportingWork samples (portfolio)Demonstration & observation of skillPeer evaluation of project workExternal review of student projectsSelf-evaluation of work | Departmental exams (Pen and Paper) – unit, chapter, preliminary and final exams.Case study/problem analysisCapstone/application projectsResearch/term paperPerformance test for skill-based courses |
Ratio of Formative to Summative Assessments
The ratio of formative to summative assessments are as follows:
For General Education courses:
- 70% of the grade should be formative and 30% should be summative.
For Professional Courses (except review classes and OJT):
- 50% of the grade should be formative and 50% should be summative.
For both GE courses and professional courses there should be at least twelve (12) formative assessments four (4) of which should be graded and assigned before the midterm and four (4) of which should be graded and assigned after the midterm. There should be at least one summative assessment on the 9th week and one summative assessment on the 18th week.