The Importance Of Continuous Assessment In Teaching And Learning

from a process of development and agreement within each faculty, as should the criteria against which they will be judged” (UBR1, 15/6/2015, HEQC, Audit Report, 2014). As participants perceived the aspect of the quality in teaching and learning is considered as students’ assessment through continuous assessment strategy and as it is generally believed that students’ assessment has an important impact on instruction and learning (Gibbs, 1999; Scouller, 1998). This strategy has launched by the universities with the aim of student assessment that fosters sustained student engagement in learning and enhance quality of student learning experience. Assessment of learning is at the heart of the student experience. (Brown and Knight, 1994: 1) To implement the continuous assessment strategy in public universities is to

This allows planning and ample preparation of the assessment write-ups by students. The continuous assessment tasks also encourage students to read and prepare themselves for the subsequent lecture sessions on an on-going basis, something that maximizes the benefits of learning during contact sessions. As pointed out earlier, such continuous assessment also counts towards the final grade and this motivates students to put their best into the papers. Thus, there is an apparent shift in the university from summative, judgmental assessment towards formative, diagnostic assessment which allows corrective measures to be implemented by both the course provider and the student before the latter completes a program of study. It is worth noting that, of the two institutions, University A is exceptional in terms of the high degree of congruence that prevails between its policy and the actual assessment practices on the ground, particularly with regard to linking assessment to teaching and learning. Continuous assessment is linked to specified course outcomes and feedback on course papers has to be timely enough for students to use the feedback for