Methods of assessments
MBA
The underpinning philosophy of all assessments is to develop both your knowledge and skills to enter employment as a confident manager with a strong base from which to meet your own aspirations. This requires consideration of your own personal capabilities as well as looking outward at the business world. The aim is for you to become an independent and self-directed lifelong learner. Apart from the formal assessments there will be an emphasis on self, peer and group assessment. Tutors will provide feedback on formative assessments to support your development of good academic practice.
All assessments are rooted in authentic and practical workplace scenarios to enable the integration of theory and practice in dynamic ‘real world’ work contexts. Exams are kept to a minimum. To facilitate learning for all students a range of assessment methods are used throughout the course, including:
- Business Reports to demonstrate contextual insight and professional practice;
- Project Plans to demonstrate project planning skills;
- Seminar Papers to develop critical analysis skills;
- In-class tests of your knowledge of core concepts in context;
- Project Report integrates learning throughout the course independently applied in practice;
- Business simulation where you demonstrate the impact of your strategic decision making.
The focus is on the impact of management education to management practice and later assessments require greater complexity and integration through independent study to support your successful transition into work. This is exemplified by two units at the dissertation stage: Management Practice and the Theory into Practice Project. These help you to consider your personal and professional development and the complexity of applying management education in practice once in employment.
MA AL TEFL
The purpose of assessment is to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate the extent of their knowledge and skills at a given point. The outcomes are as important to the provider as they are to the student. To provide accurate, global readings therefore, the course takes an incremental and varied approach to the assessment of the course content, culminating in the dissertation. This is a substantial piece of original research on an aspect of Applied Linguistics TEFL, but whose precise focus is determined by each student, and according to their anticipated career plans. Here, the ability to plan, execute and evaluate independent research is assessed and represents the apex of a student’s postgraduate studies.
To complement and lead up to the dissertation, there are different types of assessment on the course, each designed to relate to the content and the cumulative body of knowledge upon which the research plans of the dissertation are based. Assessment methods have been selected to support the pedagogical development of research skills and subject knowledge, and to satisfy individual unit, and global course learning outcomes. The details of each assignment task are provided in the unit handbooks and individual Unit Information Forms. The overall assessment map is available in the course handbook. Each point of assessment provides opportunities for valuable feedback from teachers but also from peers to enable students to review and improve their work.
A variety of group and individual assessments throughout the duration of the course are used to underline research and independent thinking, critical knowledge theory and practice and the ability to make informed decisions. This is relevant to the intended learning outcomes of our programme.
The following are some examples:
- Academic papers,
- Oral presentations,
- Materials evaluation and production for language teaching and learning purposes;
- In-class tests and examinations;
- Portfolios of small practical tasks,
Academic papers: the core unit LNG012-6 the Methodology of Language Teaching requires the students to produce two academic papers, one of which is based on critically evaluating approaches and methods for language teaching and learning purposes. Students have to demonstrate their understanding of existing relevant literature using it to support/contrast their critical analysis of an approach of their choice.
Oral presentations: assessment for a few units includes an oral presentations and one example is: the oral presentation for our Postgraduate Conference focusing on your dissertation proposal to form the programme for our internal conference. This counts 10% of your final grade together with 90% for the written project.
Materials evaluation and production for language teaching and learning purposes: You are required to evaluate and produce materials for language teaching and learning purposes for at least two units offered as core in this programme – LNG012-6 The Methodology of Language Teaching and LNG025-6 Materials Development for Language Teaching and Learning (please refer to relevant UIFs).
In-class tests and examinations: a core unit in this programme requires you to do your assessment in the form of in-class tests and examinations: the LNG011-6 The Language System core unit which includes an in-class test as one of the assessment points (please refer to relevant UIF). This type of assessment generally requires you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of your reading under invigilation.
Small practical tasks: the teaching practice unit, for example, – LNG024-6 Teaching Practice – involves actual teaching practice in the form of classroom teaching and materials development. The above are all part of continuous assessment tasks, which will then be included in the final product, a teaching practice file you normally produce at the end of your teaching experience.
MSc (Public Health)
The assessment strategy is designed to assist you in identifying, reflecting on and meeting your own learning needs in relation to your working environment. Each unit is further designed to develop your public health skills in ways which are directly relevant to your workplace.
In order to assist in your future professional and career development, each assignment will require you to identify and develop a competency from the UK Faculty of Public Health framework which forms the basis of your learning and underpins your assessment. As you undertake the course units, you are given the opportunity to develop your skills in arange of public health techniques via the assessments. For example, you will be required to develop an Action Plan; write a newspaper article summarizing a complex public health issue into layman’s terms; write a public health report; develop a public health research proposal; develop a public health presentation; and design a public health poster. Each of these assessments will enable you to demonstrate the ability to critically understand and evaluate complex public health issues and communicate these effectively to a range of audiences.
MSc (Nutrition & Dietetics)
The assessments of this course aim to enhance the learning experience rather than simply provide academic benchmarks. The assessments will be carried out using several methods including oral presentations, case study reports, critical reviews of literature, individual reports, practical assessments, a portfolio of experience, end of unit examinations, and practical demonstrations. The assessment methods used relate closely to the learning outcomes of the course and individual units, while allowing students scope for creativity in fulfilling them e.g. by self-selection of case study examples to present within a written report within a particular health context. To optimize learning, a range of assessment methods are used throughout the course and you will be required to undertake a variety of group and individual based assessment through the course. The individual assessments are intended to test insights gained from the course and appropriate underpinning theory. All the grading will be subject to multiple marking and moderation to adhere stringent quality assurance and fairness to all the students.
BA (Hons) Business Administration
A range of assessment methods is used throughout the course. You are required to undertake a variety of individual based assessments throughout the course. These assessments include individual essays, reports, presentations, and examinations. The assessments are designed to test subject knowledge and understanding of the appropriate subject matter, but also to demonstrate the range of intellectual and subject specific skills identified elsewhere in this document. Providing a wide variety of types of assessment maximises your opportunities to develop a wide variety of transferrable skills such as presentation, and report writing and gives you the chance to play to your strengths. At level 6 you are treated as an independent learner, and both the project unit(New Advances in Business) and the Strategic Management unit provide opportunities for you to draw together your business knowledge in an individual and more independent way. The Management and Administration of Projects unit invites you to practice Project Management skills through the organisation of an activity. Industry views this as a highly valued and transferrable skill. In all units you will find assessment support in terms of careful briefing, and the completion of formative stages with detailed feedback designed not only to benchmark your performance but also to give you insights into how you can improve your work.
BA (Hons) Accounting
The course will use a range of assessment methods to enhance the student learning experience and improve employability .The assessments will be designed to support the overall course learning outcomes.
Individual Written Reports
Your enterprise is developed and assessed along with your knowledge and skills. You will be required to collect information, evaluate and analyse it, and proceed to conclusion and recommendations in a clear, concise and professional way.
Unseen examinations
Examinations will be set that promote critical thinking, analysis, application, appraisal and synthesis of material to create a more reflective learner.
Coursework assignments:
These are designed to help you manage tasks individually over a period of time. They will also assist you in applying and contextualising your knowledge.
Specialist Project Report:
A crucial individual piece of work, it provides you with an opportunity to work independently with a supervisor at length, on a topic that particularly interests you. It is also an effective means of research training, which helps to develop advanced intellectual skills such as evaluation, analysis and synthesis, as well as management skills.
BEng(Hons) Civil Engineering/ BEng(Hons) Architectural Engineering/ BEng(Hons) Civil Architectural Engineering
A range of assessment methods are used throughout the course. The types of assessment used range from practical work that assesses the practical application of knowledge and concepts gained in lectures and seminars and also from learning acquired during self-study to presentation, portfolio and report based on assignments and lab practicals. Time controlled in-class test are also utilised to allow the students to experience and adjust to the industry requirements.
BEng(Hons) Electronic Systems Engineering
The assessments provide you with opportunities to diagnose your skills, abilities, academ-ic/occupational background and to give you an early indication of what specific learning practices may help you improve in specific areas of study, starting from student induction period in conjunction with and throughout the entire in-course period of study. There will be frequent opportunities to get feedback both from tutors, peers and via self-assessment, and some assessments will allow for draft sub-missions to be considered by a tutor or peers to identify aspects in need of development prior to final hand-in.
The assessments are to be inclusive such that a variety of methods will be used in as-sessing students to ensure that no particular group of students are advantaged or disadvan-taged. The methods include portfolios, laboratory practical work, group and individual pro-duction projects, individual and group written reports and formal written exams.
Mini-projects and case studies provide you with real-world problems. You are expected to find solutions to the problems following the process of analysis, technique evaluation, de-sign and syntheses, and solution evaluation.
These mini- projects and case studies are designed in both group work and individual work fashions to allow you to practice your communication skills and team working skills, and to develop the capability of working individually. They are also design in the way in which you need to connect together different elements taught within a unit and also across different units with helps from the course team who explain to you how individual units make-up of the course. Written exams focus on theoretical knowledge and the application of the knowledge to en-gineering problems.
BSc(Hons) Construction Management
A range of assessment methods are used throughout the course. The types of assessment used range from practical work that assesses the practical application of knowledge and concepts gained in lectures and seminars and also from learning acquired during self-study to presentation and report based assessments. Time controlled in-class test are also utilised to allow the students to experience and adjust to the industry requirements.