First Year Assessment ReDesign – A Programme Approach

A key priority of University College Dublin’s (UCD) Education Strategy (2009-2014) is ‘to foster early and lasting student engagement’. A central strand of this was astrategic Assessment ReDesign Project. In 2011/12, the project was implemented in withfive programmes, with the Deans leading the process and involving all their first year ModuleCoordinators. The project methodology centred around three full-day facilitated workshopswith these Programme teams. A programme mapping tool was used to reflect ongaps/overlaps in the programme and actions plans were devised for first year assessments.In evaluating the Deans’ and Module co-ordinators’ views, the Deans in particular valued theopportunity to take a programme overview and to a lesser extent the changes made to firstyear assessment. The coordinators highlighted a significant intention to reduce assessmentoverload and to develop assessment for learning activities in their first year modules. Insummary, findings from this project demonstrated the success of a collaborative and flexibleprogramme approach to curriculum innovation. First Year Assessment ReDesign – A Programme Approach - ResearchGate. Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/264879444_First_Year_Assessment_ReDesign__A_Programme_Approach [accessed May 8, 2015].