Key Assessment Strategy principles: Holistic design, ILO alignment, progressive, ongoing and developmental, sequenced and connected; inclusivity embedded, range of assessments, clear assessments and criteria, manageable timing and load, practice and feedback, constructive and actionable; creativity and agency, dialogue and critical thinking
What is the assessment or feedback approach?
In Advanced Topics in Applied Anatomy, a 40-credit Year 3 unit on the BSc Applied Anatomy programme, students write a cumulative diary and a final synoptic summary discussing the unit and its themes. Following each teaching session, students write a 200-word reflection on what they have learned and how they can use it. Students can choose to reflect on content, learning activities or technical processes. In the synoptic summary, they connect their learning from the unit in the form of a 500-word submission. This could cover what they enjoyed most or least, what they found most helpful for their dissertation or coursework, or something unexpected that they discovered through the process of reflection. Students are assessed on their ability to integrate ideas from the unit and demonstrate progression.
How is feedback given?
Students are able to meet Charlotte individually twice during the unit to engage in formative, personalised and dialogic feedback on two diary entries. For the first, students are asked to select a reflection that they are confident about, whilst the second ought to be one where they are less sure how to develop their thinking or feel confused about what they have learned.
Students’ diary entries are also a valuable means for Charlotte to collect their feedback on teaching and content.
How is this approach different? What are some of the design features?
Unlike reflective tasks that take place earlier in the programme, students are not required to engage in a formal process of reflection or produce scientific writing. Instead, they are encouraged to make their diary entries short, informal, and personal. Their synoptic summaries are then assessed against the Year 3 learning outcomes, which focus on students’ ability to apply knowledge and understanding of course topics in textbook anatomy to areas of variation, development and change: students need to provide evidence that they are achieving them.
“I asked myself, ‘How do we assess the important stuff?’ This is a much more adult assessment.”
– Charlotte Miller
What was the rationale for this approach? What problems or challenges was it trying to address?
Traditionally, assessment in the final year of BSc Applied Anatomy was exam- and coursework-based. Exams tended to create stress for students at the end of the year, while coursework pushed them to focus on individual topics in depth, often at the expense of others. Keeping a reflective journal encourages students to adopt a more exploratory, broader approach, integrating learning from across the unit while also appreciating and engaging with content and activities from individual sessions. The process fosters a sense of ownership, choice, and direction, allowing students to develop new perspectives and acknowledge how their understanding has evolved. By replacing exams, it also maximises flexibility and reduces anxiety at the end of the programme.
“I wanted to get students to engage with seminars, tie their ideas together and think about learning: ‘Where have I got to? How does content from this session link to other areas?’”
– Charlotte Miller
How does this approach reflect the strategic priorities of Integrated Assessment Design, Designed for All and Authentic Assessment?
Integrated Assessment Design
By Year 3, students are comfortable with the process of reflective writing, having engaged with it in Years 1 and 2. Using the approach in their final year enables them to integrate learning from different parts of the programme and apply this to their coursework and dissertation, making sense of disciplinary ways of knowing, acting and being. This process can support them with career planning. As feedback is provided throughout the year, it is formative and developmental, allowing students to make use of it to improve. Both the assessment and marking loads are distributed more evenly across the teaching block, reducing stress and deadline bunching.
Designed for All
Students report that they are excited to write about learning experiences that are personal to them and focus on what they see as important. Bringing their own backgrounds and knowledge into their writing is motivating and allows them to produce their best work. Unlike traditional exams or timed assessments, the synoptic diary approach affords students time and space to write and reflect. The transparent marking criteria and conversations with Charlotte provide scaffolding.
Authentic Assessment
Producing regular diary entries trains students to be both concise and reflective in their written communication. The process also provides scope for agency, creativity and critical thinking.
