recommendations. Through this approach I am able to directly comment on the inclusion or
otherwise of curriculum themes, and increasingly to ask questions such as ‘where would you like
your students to be better’? ‘How can you use assessment to develop them in this area?’
Imperceptibly this is moving the focus from performance to person, as advocated by Barnett. We’ve
covered methods of and approaches to feedback, choice of assignment type, the need for dialogue
with students (O’Donovan et al. 2004) and most recently, providing more detail in assignment briefs
and marking criteria. Evaluation of this sort of work is a challenge across the sector, but already it
is possible to identify some changes in the selection of assignment tools, with more having a
reflective component.
Looking forward
I read with interest our current Course Developers guide, which notes that: the introduction of QAA
Progress Files for HE includes a requirement for such development to be included as part of the
supported framework of Personal Development Planning (PDP) incorpo Ʌѕ