News & Updates

Sheffield Hallam

The Sports Department at Sheffield Hallam held an away-day in January where Graham Gibbs workshopped his 'disease-cure' text about assessment and feedback. Enthused by the capacity of TESTA to demonstrate programme-level assessment patterns, the seven undergraduate and postgraduate programme within the Sports Department have collected audit and AEQ data. Dr Tansy Jessop recently spent two days with programme leaders and team members discussing their TESTA data. Eddie Mighten, Quality and Learning, Teaching and Assessment Lead in the department is spearheading a rolling programme of TESTA-related activity to engage courses in evidence-informed enhancements. On June 23rd, a second staff away day, facilitated by Tansy and Eddie, will draw on the TESTA evidence to chart the pathway forward.

TESTA at Nottingham

The University of Nottingham invited TESTA Project Leader Dr Tansy Jessop to launch the Teaching Centre of their Politics and International Relations Department on 15th May 2014. The launch consisted of a workshop about programme assessment using insights from TESTA. About 25 people attended. Professor Sue Pryce opened the session, and participants engaged vigorously with the topic, with plenty of discussion about instrumental rationalism and students in a modular world. It was a brilliant afternoon!

TESTA in Canada

The Saskatchewan Instructional Design Group (SK ID) hosted a webinar on programme assessment drawing on the TESTA approach. 87 participants from five institutions on different campuses attended the webinar, which was led by Tansy Jessop, in New Delhi, and moderated by Denise Nelson in Regina. The five institutions were the Saskatchwan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST), Universities of Regina and Saskatoon, Briercrest Bible College and Seminary and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The session was held on Blackboard Collaborate with break out rooms for discussion, both real and virtual, and covered the terrain of designing more programmatic assessment, exploring the balance between summative and formative assessment, troubleshooting assessment patterns which encourage students to work in peaks and troughs, developing more dialogic and engaging feedback, and using evidence to engineer change. Technologically there were a few small glitches but it was a bold and triumphant plan, with excellent technical back up, moderation and facilitation all the way.

TESTA India

Research began in earnest on the TESTA India project, funded through a Knowedge Economy Partnership (KEP) award by the British Council. Researchers from Winchester and PhD students from Lady Irwin and Saurashtra respectively conducted six focus groups (four at Lady Irwin College, and two at Saurashtra University), collected more than 200 AEQS, and conducted programme audits. The team from Winchester also held discussions with academics at both universities, gaining valuable insights into best practice at both institutions. The new TESTA India blog captures some of the progress of the KEP project: http://testaindia.wordpress.com/

More Articles ...

  1. TESTA Summit
  2. TESTA at UCL
  3. TESTA at UNSW
  4. TESTA at Birmingham