Assessment Policies and Procedures

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Learning assessment methods are provided on the CEI website at Learning Assessments | HKUST CEI | Center for Education Innovation.

The University has agreed on basic policies for the management of student assessment:

  1. Faculty responsible for the course should announce the course grading scheme to the class in the first week of lectures. It is good practice to include the scheme in the course outline/syllabus with a brief mapping of how each assessment task of the course is aligned with the course ILOs.
  2. Final grades given for a course may be based on student performance in a variety of assessments, e.g. tests, essays, reports, assignments, presentations, classroom participation, and laboratory exercises, as well as on a final examination. It is helpful to students, and good practice, to specify the nature, number, and timing of the assessments and the percentage contribution of each assessment to the overall course grade.
  3. In assigning the overall course grade the method of determining the grade should be transparent. Clear documentation should be retained on how the overall grade has been derived.
  4. Course grades should be determined on the basis of the work done by students during the term and up to the point of grade posting.
  5. Final examinations should NOT be scheduled within the weeks assigned for lectures or the study break, but in the Examination Period at the end of the Term.
  6. Assessment of students should be fair and transparent. To avoid any possible claim of prejudice or bias, the University encourages faculty to grade tests and final examinations “blind” to students’ names, e.g. by assigning students with candidate numbers, where practicable.

The University encourages faculty to consider applying the following good practice in designing and setting assessments, particularly where the intention is to evaluate students’ achievement of learning outcomes agreed for the course and the program:

  1. Use a sufficient range and variety of assessments, to allow students to demonstrate achievement, of course, intended learning outcomes;
  2. Coordinate among faculty to manage the number, timing, and type of assessments required of students for the Term, to ensure that students are not over-assessed or over-burdened;
  3. Design assessments that decrease the likelihood of plagiarism by requiring students to apply, analyze, evaluate and synthesize information (rather than recall facts or concepts that could be easily reproduced from websites or other sources);
  4. Make past examination papers available to students to inform and direct students’ learning.

The University has issued Guidelines for Use of Undergraduate Course Grade Distribution Bands, detailing the criterion-referencing grading basis, the mechanism of grade approval and review at department and university levels, and the grade distribution guideline bands approved by the Senate in April 2020.