Academic Assessment Audit for Higher Education Institutions

Introduction

Academic Assessment should be regular and continual process; it might not always be formalised, but institutions may be informally evaluated what learners are doing, asking them questions, and reviewing their progress and wherever required institution can correct them.

There are two important parties in academic assessment. Learner and Assessor. Learners are expected to demonstrate their skills, knowledge, understanding and attitude regularly while an assessor is required to evaluate the performance of learner without any judgement and presumptions. Assessment and evaluation both are different phenomena; assessment is of learning while evaluation is of the programme that the learner is taking, e.g., qualification.  Assessment is specific towards an individual learner’s progress and achievements, as well as identifying how they can develop and improve. Evaluation is a quality assurance monitoring tool. It incorporates feedback from your earners and others.  There are three types of academic assessment e.g., Initial assessment which is generally done at the time of admission, formative assessment is ongoing assessment while summative assessment is taken at the end of the programme.

Generally, institutions assess learners to measure the competence level and performance level. therefore, students learning outcome should always be specified and communicated to all learners. SLO will also help institution to plan activities effectively to assess skills, knowledge and understanding. Standards and requirement keep changing for both industries and educational institutions. Therefore, institutions need to ensure that they are working with the latest and recent trends.

Following figure 1 represents the how academic assessment is benefited to learners. 

 

Academic Assessment can help learners by

 

 

Figure 1 Benefits of Assessment

 

 

Assessment can take place in any environment, e.g., a classroom, a training workshop, the workplace or an outside location or even online. The result of an assessment can be used towards a learner getting a certificate or qualification or to confirm their competence of work.  Learning can take place in different environments depending upon what is being assessed and why.

 

 

 

Figure 2 Learning environments

 

There is a difference between assessment of learning and assessment for learning. Assessment for learning is usually a formative process and is often informal. It will ascertain the progress made so far in order to plan further learning and development. it’s called formative assessment as it is going throughout the learning process. Assessment of learning is usually summative and often formal, and confirms that learning and achievement have taken place. It is called summative assessment as it occurs at the end of an aspect of learning. If learners are working for qualification in such case there will be formal summative methods of assessment, however, informal formative methods can be used to check progress of learners at any time.

 

 

Academic Assessment manual for higher and technical educational institutions are based on the concept of IPDCA which is shown in below diagram which will continue till all aspects of programme have been

achieved by the learner.

 

 

Figure 3 IPDCA

AAM is based on the IPDCA principle where in institute is required to ensure whether learner has achieved the goal or not.

 

How to use the manual

There are two types of questions used for the manual. Qualitative and quantitative. In qualitative questions institutions are required to write and justify in minimum 300 words to maximum 1000 words while in quantitative institutions are required to answer either by writing in yes or no or by writing the specific numbers whichever is applicable.