The Impact of Changing Assessment: Does It Make a Difference to Students' Grade Performance?
9 Pages Posted: 23 Apr 2019
Date Written: March 24, 2016
Abstract
Assessment in higher education sector is widely researched for its relevance to outcome measurements in different forms such as grade performance, students’ exit skills at graduation, and employability. One of the most widely used forms of assessment, summative assessment, is used to gauge students’ performances in these dimensions. The current quasi-experimental study reports the impact of a change in assessment from a single summative paper-based mid-term examination to three short online, open book, continuous mid-term examinations in a third-year management accounting subject. The study finds that students’ performance, as measured by marks in the final exam and overall marks in the subject, did not significantly improve as a result of the change in assessment format. Other measures of performance such as changes in student numbers in different grade categories did not reveal changes at any statistically significant level. The findings of this study are contrary to the existing literature that changes in assessment improve grade performance in a subject. The implication of the findings are that changes in assessment need to be weighed against the benefits from it, and that traditional paper-based assessment still works as well, if not better than technology driven assessment such as online open book examinations.
Keywords: motivation, learning, engagement, continuous assessment, summative assessment, online quiz
JEL Classification: M40, M41
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