Asked in a poll this year whether they were happy with their university courses, 82% of students said yes. But the latest National Student Satisfaction survey was less positive when it came to the question of assessment. Just under half - 44% - said that the feedback they received was often late, and, when it did come, not very helpful.
This is one reason why the Higher Education Academy (HEA) is taking a special look at assessment and how new technologies can be used.
These have had a huge impact on the variety of assessment tools now available, including multiple-choice questions, podcasted feedback, e-portfolios, and even virtual worlds.
The University of Strathclyde's Law School, for example, has set up a virtual village in which students simulate the practice of law in a virtual town. The Simulated Professional Learning Environment (Simple) allows academics to watch students work in an appropriate professional context.
Meanwhile, the HEA's philosophical and religious studies subject centre is using multiple-choice questions with no right answers to help students investigate different kinds of reasoning and to aid formative assessment.
Elaine Payne, assistant director of the HEA, says that assessment has had to catch up with the fact that new technology allows institutions to deliver learning to different kinds of learners, away from the traditional seminar room or lecture theatre. Hence the need for on-demand assessment, in which students can be assessed where and when they want.
This has implications for ensuring the authenticity of candidates, and for plagiarism, although technology is moving fast to resolve these through use of biometrics and passwords, plagiarism detection software, and setting students a number of short tasks that leave evidence trails.
More of a consideration, says Payne, is ensuring that "the technology supports the pedagogy" rather than the other way around.
• This article was amended on Tuesday 28 April 2009. In the report above on new assessment methods, we said that the Higher Education Academy's subject centre for law has set up the Simulated Professional Learning Environment (Simple) to allow students to simulate the practice of law in a virtual town. In fact, Simple was developed at the University of Strathclyde's Law School, with funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee and the HEA's subject centre for law, the UK Centre for Legal Education. This has been corrected.
