Towards More Formative Assessment in Higher Education

This course paper re ects on some of the assessment methods most frequently encoun- tered in higher education. It brie y summarizes advantages and challenges of the methods and relates them to the SOLO taxonomy framework and examines in how far dierent meth- ods promote deep learning or surface learning. In the nal section, some steps are presented for reallocating weight from summative assessment methods to formative methods that to a greater extent promote deeper learning. It is concluded that it is important to follow a thread in the course design and help the students to see its whole picture. Care has to be taken that the chosen assessment methods do not fragment a course but follow the thread laid out by the course design.