ENHANCING ASSESSMENT IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES  

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Large first year classes are now a feature of many, if not most, undergraduate courses in the biological sciences in Australia. Even later year classes with enrolments in the hundreds are commonplace. This increase in class size poses certain constraints on curriculum design. Approaches to assessment that are manageable and effective for a class of forty may become virtually impossible for a class of five hundred - particularly given the fact that university resources in terms of people, space, and finances are necessarily limited [see also: Coping with resource constraints].

General, first year studies in the biological sciences often serve as foundation courses for a variety of degree programs (e.g. Veterinary Science, Agriculture, Pharmacy, Medical sciences etc). Therefore student cohorts are not only large, but also diverse in terms of students interests and knowledge backgrounds [see also: Enhancing assessment for diverse student groups].

Increasing class size is certainly not confined to the biological sciences. This is recognised as a general feature of higher education in Australia, and is an issue generating discussion and resource development more broadly.
See also Teaching Large Classes: an AUTC Project  -  an Australian project providing a range of resources for use by individual academic staff, course coordinators and university management.

Consequences of increasing class size

Several consequences arise as a result of large class size.

• For students, there is a risk of feeling 'lost in the crowd' during their early years of university study.
  Although classes are usually subdivided for practical classes and tutorials, even these are often large, with 80 or more students in a laboratory, and sometimes staff-student ratios around 1:20. Tutorials of thirty or more are not uncommon.

• Opportunities for practical classes may be reduced.
  From our interviews it appears that the very large size of some classes now pose accommodation problems and it is becoming more the norm that students are offered a laboratory class every second week of semester, and with this reduction in face-to-face contact more online work is offered.

• There are constraints upon the types of assessment possible.
  The need to provide students with feedback in a timely manner is well recognised. As a result, as class sizes increase there is a trend away from extensive use of written assignments, and toward various forms of self-assessment and more efficient yet effective forms of feedback. Similarly, the types of questions included in examinations are influenced - many end-of-semester examinations rely heavily upon multiple-choice questions specifically in order to reduce the time and resources required for grading [see also: Examinations].

• Effective coordination and communication is a priority when teams of staff are involved in the teaching.
  With large classes, practical class teaching requires coordination of a large team of staff, and in many cases this is now a team of sessional staff. It is necessary to have staff well prepared to assess students equitably in large classes and the training of this team and the monitoring of their performance is vital. It is a challenge to give individual feedback to students in large classes with many different staff involved [Example: Gregory] [see also: Involving sessional staff].

• Increased student diversity needs to be considered.
  One of the common challenges of having large classes with students from a variety of educational backgrounds and abilities, in particular with classes where some students have taken biology in the final years of secondary education and some of the students have not taken any biology during this time, is the need to keep all students interested and engaged. In some cases, there are separate courses for students who have done biology before and those who have not and in other cases, whilst the students are all taught together, there is an additional lecture and assessment each week for students without the requisite prior biology knowledge. [Example: Wood 2] [see also: Enhancing assessment for diverse student groups].

Strategies employed to enhance assessment for large classes

Information and communication technologies (ICTs), including learning management systems

Whether through the development of 'in-house' learning management systems or the adoption of open-source or commercial packages, there has been an almost universal uptake of this technology to support university teaching and learning. The potential for ICTs to enhance assessment for large classes includes:

• facilitating the management of groupwork [Example: Miller 2];
• improvement in the management of grades and feedback to students;
• the ease with which timely feedback can be given to students; and
• provision of online quizzes, learning modules etc during the semester for self-assessment opportunities [Examples: Peat 5; Plastow].

We use a series of computer assisted diagnostic activities...to provide immediate feedback and cross-references for the students. This enhances their [the students] ability to learn by reflection. (academic)

Audience response systems - an emerging trend

There is growing use of electronic audience response systems in classrooms, including in large classes in the biological sciences. [Example: Wood 1]. Such 'clicker' or 'keypad' technology is designed to facilitate interaction between the presenter and the audience. These systems can be used in variety of ways, and include tools which enable:

• anonymous polling of audience members;
• tracking individual responses; and
• the immediate display of polling results.

The possible benefits of using such systems include:

• increased student engagement;
• improved learning outcomes; and
• immediate feedback for both the presenter and the audience.

In large classes, such technology has the potential to improve communication and to facilitate feedback. And, like all technology, the use of audience response systems needs to be considered within the overall framework for effective teaching.

[see also: Online assessment; Tests and quizzes]

Encouraging students to engage in effective self-assessment

For example:

• provision of tools for self-assessment (whether or not ICT-based), such as well-designed multiple choice questions incorporating feedback for both correct and incorrect responses. [Example: Plastow] [see also: Tests and quizzes]; 
• the use of peer assessment to encourage more effective self-assessment [Example: Bird; Fairweather 1; Rogers 1] [see also: Peer and self-assessment; Providing feedback]; and
• where there is a final examination, opportunities to practise questions of the type to be included in the examination, along with timely release of feedback/answers [Examples: Mrongovius 1; Peat 6].

We provide students with a sample exam paper to prepare them for the end of semester exam....the benefit is that it is an efficient way of providing large numbers of students with feedback on what they can expect in their examination. (academic)

Coordination of teaching teams

Where teams of staff are involved in the teaching, coordination is critical. This is particularly important where inexperienced and/or sessional staff are involved [see also: Involving sessional staff; Written assignments]. Strategies include:

• Coordinating sessional staff into empathetic teaching teams; and
• Providing marking templates and marking strategies for equitable use by sessional staff [Examples: Hancock 1; Macaulay; Mulder 3; Noble; Peat 3; West].

Other, efficient means to supports students' out of class learning

For example, providing support for developing writing skills [Examples: Gleeson; Taylor 3][see also: Written assignments].

Technology and academic honesty

There is widespread use of software to test for plagiarism in students' written work. While this is not exclusively in response to large class sizes, it is a strategy being employed to efficiently test large amounts of student work for academic honesty. [Example: Thomson] [see also: Addressing plagiarism issues].

To reference material from this site, please use:

Harris, K-L., Krause, K., Gleeson, D., Peat, M., Taylor, C. & Garnett, R. (2007). Enhancing Assessment in the Biological Sciences: Ideas and resources for university educators. Available at: www.bioassess.edu.au