Student assessment is a key element in evaluating overall quality of learning and teaching in higher education. It serves also as student help as it shows students and teachers the areas that a student needs to improve on. Well designed assessments defines expectations establishes a reasonable workload, and students with opportunities to self-monitor, practise, rehearse, and get feedback.

Here’s a checklist for a quality student assessment

• The different roles of an assessment should be recognised.
• Assessment practices are guided by a faculty or departmental policy, and specific subject assessments are integrated into a general plan.
• An assessment should be seen by both students and staff as an indispensable and important component of the entire learning process instead of just making it a final adjunct.
• Particular methods of assessments may have limitations; thus, multiple varieties of methods should be used.
• Assessments are to steadily progress in complexity and demands in the succeeding years in the program.
• Teachers must ensure that students are to get explanatory and diagnostic feedback and grades, as well.
• Tasks are so designed as to evaluate applicable generic skills and also as specific knowledge on certain subjects and skills.
• Teachers should avoid giving assessments excessively. Instead, they should be designed to illustrate student learning.
• Grade computations are made on the basis of outcomes of clearly articulated learning as well as criteria for achievement levels.
• Good assessment tasks are checked for biases that can possibly be disadvantageous to certain student groups.
• Minimisation of plagiarism is made by carefully design of tasks, and by explicit education and using the right process of monitoring academic property.
• Teachers should weigh the balance between the judgmental and developmental roles of a student assessment, ensuring that low-weight and low-stakes assessments are used to give feedback to students.

A student assessment is, thus, a powerful tool for educators in order to lay down the type of learning that due is for students and also as a guide for students to find an effective approach to studying.