Assessment Of Students - Essay Example

Assessment Of Students Course assessment Course based assessment is a method of evaluating learners within the classroom surrounding using the goals that are designed in the course outline, objectives of the course and the content so as to determine how much the students have gained in the course of their learning. This paper seeks Why assess students An effective lecturer should have it in their minds that presenting course materials to the student is not enough to assume that they will get the content, some will get while others may not. Learning is said to have taken place if there is inter play between the process of teaching and the outcome of the teaching. When assessing learning then the instructors must try to identify specific goals that are set to be achieved in a particular course so that they can gauge the outcome and determine the level at which learning has taken place. Assessment can also make the learning process to be more effective and that are consistent with the course structures and the grading processes to meet the set learning goals(Gürcan, Dikenelli & Bernon, 2013). It also makes the lecturer to be better teachers as they offer specific results on what is working or not in their class rooms and provide a straight forward feedback to the learners about their classroom progress. To assess the students effectively and consistently, the instructor must first provide answers to the following questions: what do they want their students to know and learn? Secondly what do they do to help their students to learn what they expect they need to understand and know? To get the answer then they should use the following steps: one they should try to identify and articulate what their learners should learn in their classes. Secondly the instructors should try to develop tools that they can use to measure the levels of the students understanding. Thirdly, they should establish the systems that they will use to compile and analyze the data they have collected using those tools. Finally use the obtained information to improve the curriculum, objectives and even the goals. Design and validation process The nursing course is designed to provide the learners with a wide range of teaching and learning experiences. The class will be sub-divided into smaller group and each group will be allocated a tutor to teach the course. There will be seminars that are specialty based for each of the discipline of the nursing to help focus on the particular health implications and the social policies that are touching on their areas of specialization. Open workshops will also be organized to follow and be attended by each and every student that is registered for the discussion and debates. Learning of the course is designed in a way that it provides all the students with the opportunities to work together through classroom discussions and the group works as they extend even to home works(Irenge, Durant, Tomaso, Pilo, Olsen, Ramisse, Mahillon, & Gala, 2010). The institution has established a formative assessment of all the students so that it canenable the learners to develop a range of professional skills and knowledge where there is peer review and also giving and receiving feedbacks that are very constructive to the learners and the teachers. The formative assessment is done to the students through creation of short questions; this introduces the learners to have experience of working in groups and allow them to know more of how social policy is linked to their areas of specialization(Carrera, Iglesias & Garijo, 2014). It also stimulates participation of the students as they work to offer constructive feedbacks. This will enable the students to demonstrate their knowledge of the social issues in the current world and the associated policies and their impacts on the lives of the people and nursing as a discipline. It is therefore more appropriate for the students at level 4 of their study since it gives them an opportunity to express their opinions and ideas verbally in a free atmosphere as they transfer the same to their written works. Assessment and grading Grading of the students gives a representation of the overall proficiency that can be used to measure the achievements of the student(Schuller, & Rzepa, 2002). Assessment links the performance of the student to specific learning outcomes so that important and useful feedback can be obtained. The grade can be a good indicator to both the students and the instructors of whether the outcomes are successfully met(Coleman, Stevens& Reeder, 2001). However the grading systems may also have shortcomings for example the grade does not tell about the performance of the learners on the specific learning goals that is they provide very little information on the overall success of the course in helping the learners to attain specific learning objectives of their interest. Learning out comes At the end of the course the students will be able to: create and developawareness of the functions of the nurse that is in line with the contemporary healthand the social care policy. Secondly, they can give a clear description of the social care policies that have affected the development of the activities related to nursing from the time National health services was started(Reich, Silbert-Mazzarella, Spence, & Siegel, 2005).Third, they should be able to show clear understanding of the various ways in which contemporary health policies have affected the long experience of the service users. Lastly they should be able to point out and illustrate health and social and health care legislation policies and its growth with respect to evidence that are based on the relevant service needs. Amended course specifications and the rationale for the course The requirement for the course has been because of the increasing opportunities for nursing as a result of the increased demand in the entire health sector(Cahoy & Ding, 2006). This course will be offered at a level 4 mainly because it introduces to the learner a lot of underlying concepts that are associated with the social policy in line with the contemporary nursing. This course will enable the learners to be able to interpret and evaluate various approaches on how issues impact upon practices of nursing to give quality and effective health care(Venable, Rose, Bush & Gilbert, 2005). The need of this course will be to provide the learners with the essential overview of the changes that takes place in the National Health Service and the entire environment of the healthcare(Fuller, Biros, Burgoon & Nunamaker, 2013). It will also provide ever increasing job opportunities for the nurses this is because the demand for healthcare is increasing on daily basis. Institutional strategies Context for contemporary nursing has been identified by the Greenwich University as a suitable course that can be offered at level 4 giving it a credit factor of 20(Lincoln, 2014). The university has developed concepts that will help the learners to develop an understanding of the historical importance of the contemporary health care policies(Bright, & Goodman-Delahunty, 2006). This course is very important for the learners since it introduces and examines the relevance of the practices of nursing an also makes the students to understand and respect social health policies and the services that are required to deliver high quality health care. To widen opportunities for the learners so that they can access higher education with a lot of ease and enhance their participation in the health programs. Second strategy of the institution is to develop programs that are very innovative and vocationally relevant and can meet the set standards that can enable the learners to obtain the needs skills through quality education(Huq, Stevenson& Zorzini, 2014). They will also provide well established modes of delivery to the learners and the progression routes that will see to it that long life learning is facilitated and the students have achieved high academic performance so that the staffs and the students are satisfied. They have also established a strategy that will ensure that they work and form partnership that will continuously enhance the quality of learning for the students and also make the physical environment in which they are studying conducive for learning and delivery(Renaud & Phillips, 2003). Methods that are used to evaluate the course Questionnaire forms are very fundamental in evaluating this course of nursing since they have a lot of contribution to further forms of evaluation(Kaasa, Peterson, Morris & Thompson, 2007). Initially periodic appraisals of the course and relevance of the program were carried out through annual review cycle which involved course monitoring reports and the reports from the external examiners that was reviewed in every five years. All the subjects that are attached to any credit must be subjected to these reviews that are first tested in the university of Greenwich learning, teaching an assessment strategy. Quality assurance in the entire Greenwich University is majorly influenced by the internal strategies and goal of the university and even the external factors that widen participation of the learners and promote technological development (Brewer, 2008). If the entire student take the course evaluation seriously and take it as a responsibility and not a chore, evaluation process and result may become more meaningful. For the result to be constructive however, lecturer must ensure that they guide learners through ensuring that they ask explicitly for both positive feedback and areas that are in need of the improvement. Appendix Validation panel conclusion Decision of the panel Conditions 1. To reform and improvelearning outcomes, learning and teaching activities and assessment that is to reformulate the design of the assessment so that it can Meet the needs of a level 4 course. 2. Provide a stronger rationale for nursing course in the GreenwichUniversity 3. Articulate an evaluation teachingstrategies that goes over and above the normal centralized evaluation system that is commonly used in the institutions of higher learning. Recommendations 1. The university should create and develop awareness of the functions of the nurse that is in line with the contemporary health and the social care policy 2. The design of the learning of the course should provide the students with the opportunities to work together through classroom discussions and the group works. Bibliography Brewer, R. 2008, "IVT Cleaning Validation and Critical Cleaning Processes Meeting, Chicago, July 14-17, 2008-Review and Comment", Journal of Validation Technology, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 23-26. Bright, D.A. & Goodman-Delahunty, J. 2006, "Gruesome Evidence and Emotion: Anger, Blame, and Jury Decision-Making", Law and human behavior, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 183-202. 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