The assessment a lecturer sets should be planned and announced to students well beforehand, so that it is not considered ad hoc. There should be guidelines on how the work should done and more importantly how it will be assessed, so that the marking criteria are transparent and would be considered fair. This would force a lecturerto think of and set an objective assessment.

IF possible, each assignment should be assessed by more than one lecturer following the ssame guidelines and the final is averaged.

Please do nto forget that feedback should be givento students.

Yes, Dony. Assessments should be scientifically tested for validity and reliability, and then publication. The most important aspect of professionalism as a Teacher or Psychologist is the ability to be fully aware of your own biases ness, and checking it at the door (which takes practice). I coach teachers and other professionals the down deep aspects of cultural competency. Cultural competency, and mono cultural ethnocentrism, are a problem in most countries. To offer focus groups, role-playing, and training in this area is essential. Cultural Competency should not be confused with racism or discrimination. It is a professional characteristic which includes understanding the environment while thinking about your physically challenged (handicap) clients/students. Again, if you qualitatively interview prior to developing your assessments, they will be much more focused and the information you gather during in the interview process will help you choose and define the parameters of your assessments. I like you rubric strategy.

Your friend,

Marilyn

Dear Dony

Indeed, there is no one measuring rod that ensures objectivity of the assessment of a student. Ideally, it should be done by 2 or 3 assessors, and then averaged. It is so done in some UK universities. But it is not so in India. We have only one assessor. Normally, the universities do not even allow re-evaluation. They just provide for re-counting. But some universities have now begun re-evaluation as well subject to some fees and conditions:

In giving my assessment, depending upon the specific question, I see whether the candidate's answers fulfill the following criteria:

1. Whether the requisite information has been presented or not?

2. Has the candidate competently analyzed the key issues involved in the question, reflecting good conceptual abilities?

3. Are there any patently wrong statements or assumptions that the candidate has made?

4. Does the candidate know what precisely is required to be answered (In case s/he writes points that are not expected by any reasonable person, then s/he loses marks on that count, or those contents would be ignored while giving marks)?

5. To some extent, the influence of the following points can not be avoided in the assessment: Is s/he putting the points precisely, in a coherent manner, easy to understand, language used, editorial blunders, critically examining the issues discussed, reflecting her/his clarity about the subject).

How do you create an objective assessment on a lesson? Well, a lesson involves, a teacher and a class. To make an assessment of a lesson, we should make one for teacher and one for students. If we have a bad teacher then you do not expect to have students that know what they should. Thus the whole process is very complex.

The assessment a lecturer sets should be planned and announced to students well beforehand, so that it is not considered ad hoc. There should be guidelines on how the work should done and more importantly how it will be assessed, so that the marking criteria are transparent and would be considered fair. This would force a lecturerto think of and set an objective assessment.

IF possible, each assignment should be assessed by more than one lecturer following the ssame guidelines and the final is averaged.

Please do nto forget that feedback should be givento students.

Dony, we are not able to avoid subjection in our assesment if we address questions to our students personally. We have generally not chance to create standardised test for assessment.

If my aim is to assess my studenty achievement objectively i create a test with 10-150 questions and upload it to the MOODLE system which is able to give different questions for every single students randomly. Moreover this system evaluate all the tests and gives me a list of studenty performance. This is the only one I can do for objectiveness because it isimpossible to ensure representativity in testing (reliability, objectivity & validity).

I agree with Huajiang that the assessment a lecturer sets should be planned and announced to students well beforehand, so that it is not considered ad hoc. The objective assesment should be performance-based.

An objective assessment is easier to implement in some disciplines than in others. However, an impartial evaluation to the extent possible can be done through:

1. Clear criteria and rubrics

2. Collaborative Feedback by instructor (a two-tiered evaluation process allowing learner to review the first feedback and agree to it democratically so that necessary edits can be made on the final draft)

3. Moderation/ Standardization when the same work is done across classes and evaluated by different instructors/ tutor markers. Three samples spread across a performance range should be moderated by the panel before they proceed to assess individually.

None of these guarantee total objectivity. I'm not sure if it is entirely possible either. But it comes closest to an ideal situation.

Objective assessment can be implemented in Science (Mathematics included); where as in Management studies Objective / Subjective and Derivative approaches are to be followed....

By definition, any objective, regardless of its form or subject-matter connection, implies some form of assessment that is descriptive of what must occur in order to determine whether it has been met. In education, when a teacher guides instruction toward a specific learning objective, it is safe to assume that there will be an assessment at some appropriate point. The purpose of any learning-based assessment is to determine whether the students have met or achieved the intent of the objective. If there is no appraisal, no assessment or test contemplated or made before instruction proceeds to the next lesson, then there is no rational basis for judging anything. Learning objectives, by their very nature, imply there will be an assessment specifically designed to determine whether the learners have actually learned what was intended. This is a simple, yet powerful concept.

To even begin to plan, design, and construct assessments based on specific learning objectives, it is absolutely necessary to be very clear about what the actual behavior in the objective means. Often times, definitions of education-oriented words can be fleeting, fuzzy, and even frivolous. If we are to actually become professionals, and be perceived as such by our clients, we must have something that approaches a professional vocabulary. Toward that end, I have provided definitions and examples for the verbs used in objectives. While not all may agree with these definitions, I believe they can provide a basis for further work and study in this area.

To create an assessment for a particular objective may require nothing more than to write a description of the conditions and procedure. For example, if an objective was of the form, "upon request, the student will name at least three of the seven wonders of the ancient world," the assessment would be pretty straightforward. In this case, a description such as the following would suffice. The teacher will have the students take out a sheet of blank paper. When all students have done so, the teacher says, "write the names of at least three wonders of the ancient world on your paper." That description satisfies the intent of the objective. The objective does not specify a time limit; that is left to the discretion of the teacher who uses reasonable and professional judgment. Notice also that the objective states "at least three" wonders of the ancient world. A student who names all seven has met the objective in the same way as a student who names but three. The objective DOES NOT specify whether extraneous names are acceptable; therefore, a student could satisfy the objective by naming three wonders of the ancient world AND the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is certainly not a wonder of the ancient world, but the objective left that possibility open. The point here is that an assessment is only as good as the objective upon which it is based.

a) The assessment a lecturer sets should be planned and announced to students well beforehand

b) The assessment a lecturer sets could be gradually construct from the feed back should be given by students or by lecturers

c) Is it objective? You have many perceptual bias.

d) So, assessments still face a distracting wall of biased judges...

Thank you all of your answer that give enrichment on how to construct objective assessment.

As most of you said it suppose to be plan carefully before hand as Prof Huajiang and Judeh answer and explain rubric clearly to students so they can achieve maximum grade.

But still it goes to basic human feeling on perceptual and biased judge as Prof.Dorota, Prof. Agnes and Ms Monica explain on their answer.

Dony, thanks a lot for summarising this very important to all of us discussion.

Regards. Janina

It is a generic assessment of all good factors associated with the curriculum such as the mental, physical and intellectual health ; social and civic environment; and culminates with end use of the study towards employability...This assessment should be two - the pre assessment before the curriculum development and introduction ; later after some years as the course picks up momentum of acceptance and use is clearly visible.