THE EVALUATION OF LEARNING IN LARGE HIGHER EDUCATION COURSES: CONSIDERATIONS FROM THE TEACHING PRACTICE

The effectiveness of the evaluation of learning in university contexts (Boud, 2010), is relevant when:
i) assessment is used to engage students in learning that is productive;
ii) feedback is used to actively improve student learning;
iii) students and teachers become responsible partners in learning and assessment;
iv) students are inducted into the assessment practices and cultures of higher education,
v) assessment for learning is placed at the center of subject and program design;
vi) assessment for learning is a focus for staff and institutional development; and
vii) assessment provides inclusive and trustworthy representation of student achievement.

However, implementing these considerations in large higher education courses is a challenge, especially in those courses that focus on developing professional competencies of the students.

This paper is part of the results of the research project "What are the best university professors doing in large classes", more specifically, in the exploration and analysis of the most recurrent and most effective evaluation practices used by a group of university professors participating in the study.

This study involved 50 university professors who teach classes to large groups in the areas of engineering, business, health, education and social sciences, in eight universities. To include the teacher in the study, it was enough to demonstrate one of the following criteria: a positive evaluation by the students of the teacher's teaching, having received recognitions or distinctions for the quality of their teaching or having the positive reference of third parties. The teachers were interviewed regarding their evaluation practices with most efficiency in the students' learning, according to their perceptions and about possible recommendations that they could propose to other teachers.

The results of the interviews showed that the evaluation practices are focused in three main areas: teamwork assignments, traditional exams with a high feedback component and the generation of personal application assignments. For the first area, recommendations focused on how to teach students to work as a team, defining roles, tasks and responsibilities; as well as specifying in detail the type of work expected and the interrelationships generated with the other groups of the course. On the second area, the suggestions focused on the need to implement different metacognitive pedagogical strategies on the results obtained within the class. Finally, in the third axis, they focused on the selection of the types of assignments that can be most relevant and significant for learning. However, they all emphasized on the considerable amount of time invested in the management and review of student evaluations, establishing this as a tense issue for the vast majority of study participants. Only some teachers in the study group have reported that the use of technology and student-to-student support has been relevant in reducing the time invested and making evaluation management efficient within large-scale courses.