Assessment vision

Design principle 1

• Focus on the learning process: the core value 'open' in assessment

  Student development is central to education at VU, and the formative dialogue is crucial in this respect. This open dialogue is an important part of the learning process. The learning process is fed by three formative questions: what is the student working towards (feedup), where is the student standing now (feedback) and how can the student grow towards the desired situation (feedforward).^[1] These questions guide each individual student's personal learning process.  

  To enhance the learning process, it is important to have an open feedback culture. Students learn to be receptive to feedback and learn to use it in their learning process. They also learn to actively give feedback themselves. Giving, receiving and using feedback are skills that students also need after their studies to continue developing throughout their lives. Daring to give and receive feedback presupposes a safe learning environment. Learning involves making mistakes. For assessment, this implies that students can repair inferior performance on exams and that the subject matter is repeated. This leads to a development-oriented form of assessment, aimed at the development of students during the learning process. 

  ^{[1] Dominique Sluijsmans en Mien Segers, ‘Wat is nodig voor een toetsrevolutie in het hoger onderwijs? Vijf kernboodschappen voor de praktijk’, in: Dominique Sluijsmans en Mien Segers (red.), Toetsrevolutie: Naar een feedbackcultuur in het hoger onderwijs (Culemborg, Uitgeverij Phronese, 2018) 216-232: 222.}

• Assessment is an integral part of the learning process

  Learning and assessment are intertwined. Assessment does not just mean ticking off an obligation. Assessment is instructive and contributes to the learning process. From this design principle, the following points of attention follow:

  A safe learning environment is essential for the learning process
  Students are allowed to make mistakes and feel comfortable making mistakes. The educational vision describes this as a positive learning culture: We motivate students to continue to reflect on their own development. We appreciate the value of making mistakes and see this as a stepping stone in the development of graduates working towards self-critical academic awareness. For giving and receiving feedback, a safe learning environment is essential.

  The learning process provides sufficient room for an open formative dialogue
  During the learning process, three formative questions are central (feedup, feedback and feedforward). These questions recur continuously throughout the programme component and relate to student skills and products. These questions enable students to be consciously and actively engaged in achieving their learning goals and their learning process.

Design principle 2

• Ownership: the core value 'personally engaged' in assessment

  The educational vision states that the VU wants to offer students the opportunity to discover and flourish their own personal talents and take responsibility for their own learning process and study success. When students feel ownership of their own learning process, motivation increases. As owners, they are not a passive consumer of education, but an active partner who is part of the education and thus involved in their own learning process. With that comes thinking about how they can demonstrate that they have achieved the learning objectives and start working on that. Students need different ways of assessment and guidance depending on the phase they are in (within a study programme or within a programme component). This requires a focus on developing the right skills in students to take and experience responsibility for the learning process. 

• Assessment gives students the opportunity to experience ownership of the learning process

  Student ownership of their personal learning process increases motivation to learn. Students who are aware of the learning objectives see the relevance of what they are learning. Students are not passive consumers of education, but are actively engaged in learning. Students feel activated when stimulated to think themselves about how they can demonstrate that they have achieved the learning objectives and then start working on that.

Design principe 3

• Professional field and society: the core value 'responsible' in assessment

  The VU wants to be at the centre of society and make a societal contribution through its activities. The VU therefore wants to teach students to relate 'to today's increasingly complex and diverse society'. The increasingly complex society, and the constantly changing work field, calls for more attention to acquiring specific skills in academic programmes. Think of problem-solving skills, self-regulation and socio-cultural communication. However, building a knowledge base remains important: skills are coloured by an academic discipline and are therefore preferably taught and assessed within the context of the theoretical education of the discipline.

  A programme's learning outcomes evolve with changes in the needs of society and the work field (academic and non-academic). This requires the programme management to be open to changes in society when regularly reflecting on the learning outcomes. According to the principle of constructive alignment, a change in learning outcomes will demand that assessment is also revised.

• Assessment prepares for acting in the professional field and society

  The rapidly changing society requires regular reflection on the learning outcomes by the programme management. The learning outcomes of a programme follow the changes in the needs of the professional field. In case of a change in the learning outcomes, assessment is also revised.

  In training courses, theory and skills are also assessed in conjunction
  Besides acquiring skills, building a knowledge base remains important. After all, skills are filled in by the specific discipline. Skills are taught and assessed within the context of the theoretical framework of that discipline.

  Assessment contains reality-based assignments
  There is a focus on reality-based assignments, where the context of the working field is relevant. Students are partly assessed on products they will deliver in working life after their graduation.

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