Abstract:

This study completes the works by Camós, Gallardo and Montolio (2010) and Gallardo and Montolio (2011) and brings new evidence on the impact of Continuous Assessment on students’ results. We use a complete dataset with information regarding both the subjects taught and the results obtained by students at the Public Administration and Management Diploma Course of the University of Barcelona that was a pioneering experiment at this university in implementing the guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) back in 2004. More precisely we have information for eight academic years (2001/2002 – 2008/2009) on i) the professor who taught each subject; ii) the definition of the Continuous Assessment contained in the Teaching Plans when they were introduced; iii) the valuation of that definition of Continuous Assessment obtained from a questionnaire performed to panel of experts (academics with extensive careers in teaching innovation); and iv) the students’ marks in each subject. With this information we compare the results obtained by students before and after the implementation, following the Bologna process, of the Continuous Assessment controlling for who was responsible of the subject. The results present new evidence on the impact of CA taking into account a temporal perspective. It is generally accepted that the implementation and development of CA has been one of the most difficult changes brought about by adaptation to the EHEA, while at the same time a key, though controversial, aspect of the adaptation process itself. Indeed, there is no agreement on how CA in higher education is defined and how lecturers should implement the new assessment procedure. The present study aims to provide further information in this complex process of changing the evaluation process in our universities.

Keywords:

Continous assessment, Bologna process, teaching plans, evaluation.