Lecturers build competencies in assessment design and test item construction

A two-day intensive workshop aimed at equipping lecturers with professional knowledge and skills on best practices in assessment design and delivery has ended at the University of Professional Studies, Accra.

The workshop, organised by the management of the university, was intended to equip lecturers with the skills to develop a standardised format of assessment that will measure the true abilities of students.

Speaking at the opening session, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of UPSA, Professor Charles Barnor said global trends in higher education course evaluation have drifted towards technology-driven assessments.

These trends, he said, are geared towards safeguarding the reliability and validity of examinations that are administered by institutions of higher learning.

He observed that the COVID-19 pandemic has also negatively impacted the way tertiary institutions conducted their formative and summative assessments.

Prof. Barnor believes there is need to upgrade the competencies of lecturers and expose them to emerging frameworks and tools for assessment design and test item construction.

“Management has made this seminar compulsory for all lecturers because of the importance we attach to this training programme and the integrity of the tests we run as a university,” the Pro-VC said as he urged participants to make the best out of the in-service capacity building.

Facilitator for the programme, Dr Samuel A. Atintono, who is also the Principal of the Accra College of Education, said test items constructed by tutors must be guided by the Bloom’s Taxonomy of question stems.

The taxonomy identifies low-level cognition where students are assessed on basic knowledge and comprehension; and higher-order cognition where students are expected to apply, analyse, synthesise or evaluate the knowledge they have acquired.

Dr. Atintono says standard test items must have a good mix of both.

He added that test items must fairly cover all aspects of the syllabus and lecturers must pay attention to the type of test item, clarity of questions, skills being tested and standards of assessment.

The two-day workshop was attended by over 100 lecturers.