ASSESSMENT METHODS - WHAT UNIVERSITY STUDENTS PREFER

Assessment of students’ performance in higher education has been a major issue throughout the last decades. Assessment measures how students are learning and if the teaching process is effective; it ranges from observing students in the classrooms to cumulative portfolios. Students learn in various ways when educators differentiate assessment. Using various forms of assessment helps students because it gives them more opportunities to show how much they have learned. It also will familiarize students with different types of assessment techniques that encourage them to learn. This paper explored various types of assessment used at a Lebanese university and the students’ assessment preferences. The purpose of this study was to compare assessment techniques in three different faculties (administrative sciences, literature and humanities, and health sciences). In addition, the researchers aimed to enhance the usage of different types of assessment by university professors. The types of assessment tested were: pretests, homework, written exams, reflective journals, research papers, projects, presentations, case studies, essays, and portfolios. Data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were distributed to 100 students from the three different faculties and different university years (sophomores, juniors, seniors, and masters). Moreover interviews were done with university professors from different departments to check for their assessment preferences.