A Report on Impact of In-Term Assessment at Victoria University

By Philip O'Donogthue

Why In-Term Assessment was Introduced.

Since, what is variously known as "continuous", "internal" and "in-term assessment" has been in widespread use at V.U.W. since 1972, its implementation and impact at Victoria forms a useful comparative test case for assessment in other universities.

In-term assessment was introduced at Victoria in 1972 largely in response to student demand over the previous few years. Firstly, some students wanted recognition of work done during courses so that rather than counting only for "terms" requirements, course work should contribute towards final marks and grades. Secondly, allied to this was considerable student feeling that the end-of-course pass or fail pressures leading to panicky "swot" before finals exams be spread out during the course.

How In-Term Assessment was Introduced

The introduction of in-term assessment (I.T.A.) was not imposed or universal but was rather left by the academic powers-that-be up to departments and staff. Because ITA was optional for faculty staff and because of the experimental uncertainty involved, generally little or no student choice or participation was involved. Consequently many students felt that they were simply being appeased by token ITA and presented with a "fiat accomple". This situation was not helped by a blanket regulation imposed by Registry that any finals exam under their administration would require that a student would still have to pass 40% in that exam. The end result of all this was that students found themselves saddled with a wide variety of assessment schemes between and within departments which juggled ITA and finals to arrive at some mixture usually comprising a ratio of percentage of the old and new.

An added complication to the introduction of ITA at Vic was that it was the same year (1972) that changes in the degree structure were introduced, namely the semester term system and the credit system all of which was designed to give greater flexibility in courses, e.g. 6 and 4 credit courses. Although administratively separate issues, these degree structure changes and ITA have tended to overlap in practical effects so that the whole question of ITA at VIC is modified by this.

As early as April 1972, J. Nicholls in "Salient" warned that at least under the old system students could do assignments in a more self-motivated way without preoccupation with external rewards, or punishments... without prejudicing final marks. "He also pointed out "one argument for the system (ITA) advanced in a faculty meeting was that it would keep the customers working all year round instead of just before finals". This echoed the English educationalist, Michael Bassey who had warned that unless students were self-motivated in assessed assignments "we would be replacing torture at the end of the course by three years of regular torture!".

Effects of I.T.A. on "The Whole Student"

By 1973 after the first year of I.T.A. at Vic, there was a definite impression that campus life had declined and socially and politically was stagnating.

In July 1973, the Professional Board showing some recognition at least of the situation asked the Faculties to consider student rep and SRC claims "that the work programmes being required of students by present courses and methods of assessment have become unduly onerous and destructive of both effective learning and joy [sic] in university life". During 1973 and 1974 various faculty committee and student welfare reports began to measure the effect on the whole student social and academic of ITA and the degree changes, in particular in workloads, pressure and extra curricular activities.

Workloads

In reply to student rep and SRC claims that workloads had increased, the Faculty committee reports tended to be equivocal. A science Faculty sub-committee on workloads and assessment, commenting that staff opinion on increased workloads varied, also stated it was "notable that nobody has ventured to suggest that it has decreased." The Commerce and Administration Faculty committee on workloads and assessment found 21% of students surveyed could not cope adequately with course workloads and 24% could not cope adequately with total workloads. The Law Faculty reported to Prof. Board in 1974 that in consultation with the University Teaching and Research Centre and Law Students executive it had, after examining workloads, reduced the number of assignments. In Salient July 31 1974 it was reported that the Arts, Language and Literature Faculty assessment committee cited "evidence to show that the amount of work expected of students has increased over the past few years and that this increase had had a detrimental effect on student life".

An interesting point of the Science and Commerce Faculty committee reports was that most staff had been of the opinion that workloads had not increased. Furthermore, the degree structure changes came in for their fair share of the blame for work load increased. In his 1973 memorandum to the Deans of Faculties Student Welfare Services Director Mr I. Boyd warned of the danger of some smaller courses being overloaded without increasing the credit rating. This is turn affects ITA because students have difficulty dividing time between reading and assignments assessed and not assessed. This is then, an example of the affects of ITS and degree changes compounding each other.

Workloads Vs "Pressure"

Part of the problem of the controversy over workloads is the confusion of "workloads" with "pressure". Prof J.C. Clift of the VUW Teaching and Research Centre makes the distinction that "workload" is where a student knows he has a lot of work to complete yet feels he can, even with difficulty, achieve the task. "Pressure" is where a student is not sure of what is required and therefore becomes anxious. The evidence at Vic has been that ITA has contributed towards an increase of pressure which is uneven and has "peaks".

Increase in Overall Pressure

The Commerce and Administration Faculty committee in commenting on the increase of pressure due to many assignments being assessed towards final grades stated "It seems likely therefore that even if the total number of assignments have not increased, the pressure involved in completing these assignments has risen. The result is that students felt under continuous trial in everything they do". The Student Welfare Services report of 1973 noted that some students were even under the impression that their performance in large tutorials was being assessed. Also Student Welfare Director I Boyd commented "Where in-term assessment is based on results of tests and exams, spread throughout the year, this method of assessment may still be unfair to the student who is not good at sitting exams".

Another aspect of the spread of pressure was, as both the Science and Commerce Faculty committee and the Student Welfare Services noted, that often finals exams were retained with an equal duration as formerly though for less marks.

Thus for many students an overall increase in pressure results from the continuous spread pressure on top of the very end of course pressure that ITA was supposed to alleviate. This seems to reflect the inability of departments to adjust to the changes in degree structure and reinforces the suspicion that often ITA was simply a token to students. Alternatively many staff and students had not yet adjusted to the new assessment form.

Pressure Uneven with Peaks

The other disturbing feature of the spread of pressure was that it was found to be uneven with peaks as the result of clashes of assignments due and tests. This problem has been mentioned in both the August 1972, February 1973 and August 1973 Student Welfare memoranda 50% of the students surveyed by the Commerce Faculty committee regarded their workload poorly or very poorly spread. These clashes and peaks reflect poor coordination between and even within departments which probably had not adjusted to the flexibility allowed students by the new degree changes. Even though, Student Welfare advice of better planning and coordination such as date of assignments has been attempted by Science, Law and Commerce and Administration Faculties, the workload remains and assignments and tests can still "cluster". .

Unassessed Assignments Neglected Leads to Courses Competing

Not surprisingly, students faced with a clash of assignments tend to devote more attention to those carrying the most assessment, weight as noted by Student Welfare Services and the Commerce and Science committees. Furthermore as the [unclear: Commerce] Faculty committee stated "If students are neglecting a page 13 particular paper for this reason, the natural tendency is to increase the number of assessed pieces of work in that paper." Such competition between courses to coerce students to do the work in a particular paper obviously leads to increased workload and pressure.

Fragmentation of Courses and Learning Skills

Another result of students neglecting unassessed work is that students are forced to 'hop' from one topic to the next before they have really fully covered it. According to the Student Welfare memorandum "The fragmentation of students academic studies, partly due to the new smaller credit value courses and partly due to interm assessment has created difficulties for some students. Here again the effects of ITA and the degree changes overlap. Yet another problem resulting from the shorter courses and ITA noted be Welfare Staff especially in first year courses was the application of assessment to assignments before students had adjusted to the course material or had acquired skills required in subsequent assignments.

The Teacher - Examiner and Feedback Problems

Other related complaints on marking include: some assignments are returned too late to help students in the next assignments, assignments are often returned with insufficient comment to be of use in later assignments. Students also complained to Welfare staff or inconsistency of marking between different tutors in the same subject. Clearly, ITA as the Science Faculty Committee reported "....has emphasised the role of teachers as examiners rather than teachers". According to the Welfare memorandum of 1973 "We have received many comments which suggest some staff are not very sure of what they are assessing and how to assess." Staff as well as students have been under increased workloads and pressure because of degree changes and ITA and where lecturers are uncertain of in term assessment, this is passed on to students in vague misleading and confused ITA schemes which in turn increases anxiety and pressure for students. ITA at VUW has shown that because this type of assessment emphasises the assessing role of the teacher the quality of teaching becomes more important especially in the shorter courses. It is unfortunate that the obvious difficulty some staff have had in adjusting to new degree changes and assessment forms has not been reflected in the number attending the Voluntary teaching courses at the Teaching and Research Centre.

Extra Curricular Activities

Probably the hardest aspect of the impact of ITA at Victoria to ascertain and quantify is that of extracurricular activities. Politically there were a number of other factors involved. The election of the Labour Government pulled the rug from under such issues as the Tour, the war and compulsory military training while the 'heavies' of the campus Left who previously had been an entertaining opposition, got onto the Studass executive so that issues and personalities which student politics rely on faded. SRC's and AGM's fell victim to student apathy. Yet the impression remained that workloads and ITA were somehow responsible. In responding to the Prof. Board July 1973 request on whether students had "less joy in their university life than formerly" the Science committee reported there is a stronger body of opinion that this is true and that it is related in some degree to the fact that students feel themselves continually under the pressure of being assessed."

In the Welfare Services memorandum 1973, Mr I, Boyd quoting a residence hall Warden's "a strange new malaise about the university this year" and the Studass Welfare Officer "students feel deadened by assessment and other academic requirements" went on to give the Welfare staff the impression that "students seem reluctant to commit themselves to any activities which take a substantial amount of time". In short, students can squeeze in an hour a week but such things as Drama Soc suffer. Boyd has also mentioned, however, other factors such as economic circumstances forcing full-time students to seek part-time employment and accomodation trends forcing students to spend more time in the Library as a place of study. Boyd further warned "If the effect of in-term assessment and/or the new degree structure is to reduce the interdisciplinary activities organised by students' clubs and societies and to reduce the attendance at special lectures and debates, then we are failing to provide a broadly-based education for our students".

While Studass reps' impression is that the use of Union facilities has declined, the latest survey by the Teaching and Research Centre among Commerce students failed to substantiate it. Furthermore, this year and last year, the VUWSA Cultural Affairs Officer reports a rise in the number of club memberships. This is qualified by the fact that some students join quite a few clubs at once while the question remains whether many students will find they have the time to keep up during the year.

Recent Research: The 1975 Commerce Report

From various students comments, came the view that ITA was something of a token gesture and a clear wish for the abolition of terms requirements. Also a strong demand for a mixture of ITA and finals was evident mainly on the grounds of preventing cheating which students defined as copying, co-operating (sic) and purchasing assignments. Students wanted forms of assessment which tested various skills. In short, most students favoured ITA but not as it had hitherto been implemented.

The Student Response

The first feature of the student reaction to ITA at Victoria is that among most students there has not (yet) been a reactionary demand to return to the "status quo ante-" ITA of terms and finals. ITA is seen as still good in principle but that problems have arisen from its faulty implementation. As the Director of Student Welfare Services concluded "The views I have expressed should not be taken to imply that the Welfare staff or large numbers of students are opposed to the principle of ITA....there is a considerable measure of support for the well thought out use of ITA". Prof J.C. Clift of the VUW Teaching and Research Centre and the Studass personnel involved are equally adamant that ITA still stands in principle but that its implementation as revealed by surveys has revealed practical problems.

This raises the question of how have students responded to what would seem to have been a largely student-sponsored scheme "backfiring" on the students? If we accept that ITA at VUW has contributed towards an increase in workloads and/or pressure then we clearly have a vicious circle whereby student apathy is reinforced by overworking and a sense of overwhelming futility which makes student action on assessment difficult to organise and sustain. On the other hand, on occasion, students can be pushed to breaking point on workloads as was the case in 1973 in August when a lively forum on "why I am pissed off with varsity" singled out workloads and assessment as the causes and petitioned the Prof. Board for an investigation which has contributed to the various faculty reports over the last few years.

Student Representation

Because of the traditional problem of sustaining student mobilised action, much of the spade work, at times disheartening, has been left to the student reps of different faculties. Due to sheer dogged persistence some minor concessions and improvements have been won such as better co-ordination of assignment dates. One example has been the development of the "double chance" form of assessment in the Romance Language Department as a result of consultation and collaboration between student representatives and sympathetic staff in 1973. Under this system, a student, given a mark out of 100 for her terms's work would be given "second chance" to sit a finals exam. Again, the registry ruled that all students would have to sit the exam thus making it a "double" rather than "second chance" assessment system.

A related feature is that because of increased workload pressure partly due to ITA student reps not only find it more difficult to organise students but to represent them. Because of apathy at SRC's in electing them and the demands on their time divided between study and committee duties etc, the student reps credibility as representing students can be questioned by faculties. Furthermore, student reps are present on committees not of right but on concession by staff who always naturally have a majority.

Assessment Campaign

This year VUWSA's assessment campaign is concentrating on attacking the problems of ITA at a departmental level such as the Committee of Eight in the English Department. Apart from the standing targets of the abolition of terms and the 40% of any finals exam ruling, the main emphasis of this campaign is on the the "double chance" form of assessment and greater student participation in the formulating of course workloads and methods of assessment. At a recent Arts, Languages and Literature Faculty meeting considering its Permanent Committee on assessment, worloads and Credit Ratings, a student rep moved (seconded by Prof. Nomsh of Romance Languages) a motion which included students 'right to decide (in conjunction with staff) on a reasonable course workload and a fiar method of assessment'. Because of some staff disapproval of such student 'rights' the resolution has since been watered down to "opportunity" while still asking faculties to "encourage students to collaborate with lecturers in decisions affecting workloads, teaching practices and methods of assessment for their courses".

Conclusions and Recommendations