Marking criteria

Constructive Alignment

In higher education, we are encouraged to operate in a system of constructive alignment where assessment is aligned to teaching and to learning outcomes. Our assessment criteria are what we use to judge whether students have met the learning outcomes of our courses.

The Quality Assurance Agency in the UK describes summative assessment as being "used to indicate the extent of a learner's success in meeting the assessment criteria used to gauge the intended learning outcomes of a module or programme." (QAA 2011)

Clear marking criteria can be effective:

To raise student awareness of how marks are awarded within an assignment
To improve accuracy and consistency in marking within and across degree modules and markers
To introduce a time-effective marking system for tutors (Castle, Incledon and Waring 2008)

Guidance for creating marking criteria can be found on the Epiguem site. This includes examples and suggests a step by step approach to creating marking criteria.

References

Castle, Incledon and Waring (2008) Enhancing Feedback: The Development of a Criterion-Based Marking Template for Students on a Sport Degree Programme, Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, 7 (1) pp.89-98 http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/hlst/documents/johlste/vol7no1/castle.pdf

QAA (2011) Understanding Assessment - A guide for early career staff, [online] http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/UnderstandingAssessment.pdf (accessed 6th January 2014)