Abstract:

Current thought considers that the basis of the educational process is not teaching but learning. Because of this, the learning assessment process has become an essential part of the university curriculum. Learning assessment is one of the most controversial and thought provoking of the educational tasks, apart from being an obligation for both students and teaching staff. For the students, we can confidently say that the subject assessment system is the second section in the subject programme that the student considers. For teaching staff, the design of the assessment system is a vital task, because it both forms part of the educational project developed by each faculty and it allows teachers to evaluate whether students have reached a sufficient level of theoretical/practical knowledge with which to practice the profession they are studying.

With the introduction of new study programs to the framework defined by the European Higher Education Area, continuous assessment is now the basis of the university assessment system. This study reflects on the transition of the assessment system, from a fixed unidirectional approach to a continuous bidirectional approach, in a system of education designed for large groups studying a second cycle degree subject. The study considers continuous assessment as the base for obtaining updated information on the development of the educational process and on learning quality. The assessment system includes measurement instruments in the form of tests or exams to ensure that students have reached a series of educational objectives, which are defined as specific learning goals. Accordingly, these exams are designed to test whether the students have reached a full understanding of the concepts and content of the subject matter and their relationships. However, concentrating solely on the result (understood as a scale value judgement, usually numerical) obtained by a student in an exam does not help us find the reasons behind an unsatisfactory result (whether a fail or a simple pass) or work out how the result could have been avoided or improved upon. Therefore, our study on learning assessment goes beyond a mere analysis of qualifications obtained by our students in order to incorporate both their perceptions and our impressions into the design and improvement of the continuous learning assessment system.

The preliminary results suggest that the incorporation of continuous assessment tests into the subject analysed has improved the learning of the students; concretely, and from a quantitative point of view, it has produced a statistically significant improvement in their qualifications.

Keywords:

evaluation, teaching-learning process, large groups.