Assessment in higher education final draft 05-11-16 (1) final

Research on assessment in higher education case in South Africa

After the apartheid order, the South African higher education has undergone massive

changes that have left an ineffaceable imprint on the system, its practices and its constituent

institutions (Bentley, 2006). The post-apartheid period commenced with in introduction a

symbolic policy aimed to declare the change from the past and also signal the start of movement

into a new direction. However the new policy did not lead to the improvement of higher

education institutions in the nation in many respects (Rhodes University, 2015). The significance

of assessing the performance of students in higher education institutions has been recognized in

various parts of the world (Castells, 2001). The use of various assessment and performance

indicators tools is controversial because they are critically related to quality of education offered

by learning institutions. The goal of various nations to improve the efficiency and quality of their

higher education systems has led to the increased use of assessment methods that provide a

platform for providing quality education to students (Ashburn, 2006).

In the South African higher education system, there is still too much focus on what tutors

teach and on testing the understanding of this knowledge by students rather than concentrating

on the challenges and opportunities of establishing and utilizing assessment to support quality

high-level learning (Delanty, 2001). In such a system, it is very easy to lose sight of important

role that assessment can and should play in enhancing learning processes. An analysis of the

changing views of assessment in learning institutions by Beets (2007) reveals that there are three

stages that have been developed during specific time periods in history. The first stage is

conventional assessment which usually follows teaching and has the main purpose of discovering

how much has been learned by students. The second stage is education measurement which

builds on the underlying premises of conventional assessment but also focus on making the

assessment process more technically defensible, efficient and rational. The third stage is

competency and authentic assessment. This type of assessment is based on the purpose of

ensuring a genuine correlation between what is being assessed and the actual competence of

students. It brings a rather close correspondence between higher education learning and

professional practice.

An analysis of the higher education system in South Africa using data from researching

academic programs in various universities reveals that the system uses assessment models

focused one of the three mentioned stages or the first two stages (Barak, 2010). This revelation

highlights what Beets (2007) refers to a higher education problem where academic institutions

experience problems by clinging on to old practices such as the old assessment tools used in the

first two stages. In spite of being viewed as one of the methods of reforming the higher education

system of South Africa, change in assessment methods remain largely stifled by common

practice and tradition which both ignore the relationship between learning and teaching. It is

evident in the lack of sufficient research on the subject of assessment in South African higher

learning institutions. Assessment is not just meant to inform the student and the lecturer about

their achievements but rather it should also create a substantial and important reciprocal

interaction between the learning and teaching processes hence opening up possibilities and

opportunities that ensure the most appropriate learning and teaching outcomes.

Instead of South African higher leaning institutions struggling to strengthen summative

assessment as their most commonly used evaluative process, they should instead focus on

supporting students to take control of their learning process and also improving learning

processes. Currently, the South African higher learning system’s assessment process is not

sufficiently mean to equip leaners to learn in situations where teachers and examinations are not

present (Rhodes University, 2015). In doing so, the system is failing to prepare the learners for

the rest of their lives. The system is required to counter-discourse in a manner that underpins a

transformation of assessment with a focus on formative purpose. With the rising knowledge

economy, there is need to put in place an assessment system that can provide feedback to

lecturers as well as students about the correctness and appropriateness of their learning for as to

support efficient learning in higher education institutions.

South Africa is experiencing issues that influence assessment practices negatively. Some

of these issues include the threat of plagiarism, the emergence of novel technological

possibilities for assessment, the changing nature of student bodies as well as its engagement with

the process of learning, the prominence associated to the development of generic skills and the

need for higher learning staff to identify assessment methods that are cost-effective and less time

consuming (Murray, 2013). It is evident that the promotion of sustainable and effective learning

processes through efficient assessment in South African higher learning institutions is not

straightforward or unproblematic. It is important to shit the conceptual understanding of

assessment from the utilization of assessment results to support administrative functions, towards

the development and utilization of assessment in collaboration with students to improve the

current learning process (Beets, 2007). This would lead to the creating of self-regulated learning

institutions in future. However, such an initiative will require the establishment of a scholarship

of assessment which can be described as a systematic inquiry about assessment. Infusing these

ideas in the South African higher learning system will spearhead the development of a new

assessment culture that largely focuses on the integration of assessment and instruction driven be

the need to align instruction and learning more with assessment.

`Define and clarify what Assessment is in Higher Education

Assessment refers to the collection of information about a subject matter that is to be

utilised in a specific way (Crisp, 2012). Assessment is a conglomerate of measurement which

applies a set of rules and procedures to an attribute of something or someone to obtain

quantitative data about it. Despite this, assessment can be inclusive of measurement, for

instance when a tutor uses a multiple choice test to measure the achievement of knowledge

and skills achieved. The consequent is a score, which is used in ranking the students

according to performance.

Assessment can also be defined in terms of the collection of qualitative data, for

instance in tests that require descriptions. Both qualitative and quantitative data in assessment

is vital (Miller et al., 2006). The main objective of the assessment is the determinant of the

choice of data, either qualitative or quantitative. Evaluation refers to a process through which

information gained during an assessment is used to develop a judgment about a certain matter

or topic. If an instructor makes a judgment about the worth or value of a certain student based

on data or insight, then it is a practical case of evaluation. If for instance, the instructor

administers a mid-term exam to students, then the results they achieve is both a measurement

and assessment. In cases where the instructor uses this information to make a judgement about

the students, as the need for a remedial, then this constitutes an evaluation.

Contrary to the belief of many, assessments have a huge influence on the learning by

students than teaching. Assessments have a large influence on how these students will

respond to what they learn in class, with these assessments acting as a signal to what their

instructors regard as either important or just contemporary. Assessments also provide an

incentive for students to study and ensure that they develop study strategies to cover as much

ground as necessary (Barak, 2010). According to Bound (1995), it is possible for students to

escape the effects of poor teaching, but it is inexplicably hard for them to escape the effects of

poor assessments. This demonstrates the influence that assessments have on the student lives,

which they should place as a priority.

For many students, assessments act as a lever, which determines the extent to which

they will learn, how and what they will learn. This is often due to the fact that lecturers make

a plan for a course, develop the learning activities within the course and finally set the

assessment. As a result, the assessment usually takes into account what the lecturer considers

to be vital for developmental learning (Barnett, 2007). When students take on a new course,

the first thing that they evaluate is the assessment framework for the course and then

formulate their own learning activities to meet the requirements of the assessment (Sebastian

& Eduard, 2012). As a result, they end up missing on important data, which could have been

highly detrimental to the course learning. The individuals involved in the design of courses

should, therefore, develop a coherence between all aspects of learning to ensure that desired

learning outcome is achieved.

In recent years, the realm of assessments has increased considerably. New assessments

methods have been developed and have even been instituted in higher education. Assessments

constitute a defining feature of student teaching (Barnett, 2007). When students are

requisitioned about their approaches to learning, there are mainly there sets of approaches that

they do specify. They include the surface approach to learning, deep approaches to learning

and strategic approaches to learning (Brookhart, 2004). Surface approaches to learning

encompass having to go through the tasks and the coursework, without necessarily getting

personally engaged in the work. They therefore see learning as an unwelcome imposition on

their being, reducing their autonomy to engage in better and productive self-chosen practices.

They therefore memorize materials and use procedural problem solving, with a limited

conceptual understanding of their topics. The deep approaches to learning motivate students

to get to understand the course work, conduct an active conceptual analysis and this is

consequent to a deep level of understanding for the subject matter (Brookhart, 2004). The

strategic approach to learning constitutes a better and more refined path to learning where the

student has an objective, vision and mission on learning. They aim at the highest possible

results from the assessment and as such, they tend to be engaged in a well-organized and

conscientious study methods. They also have to be good time managers it ensure that they are

well versed in the content of the materials that they are reviewing.

An assessment in higher education is a fundamental link in learning and progression.

It provides an avenue and an opportunity for administrators and instructors to assure and

express academic standards and has an important influence on the way that’s students behave.

In many higher education institutions however, the practices have not kept up with the pace

that the structure of education has evolved with (Barnett, 2007). Modularization has limited

the ability of students to acquire constructive knowledge and has led to a significant growth in

summative assessments (Brookhart, 2004) Assessment also form a backbone to major

challenges that are facing students and institutions in this day and age. The student-tutor

ration has been gradually eroded, with students remaining confused about what is really

expected of them. As a result, these students have gone through the motions swaying them in

every direction. As a result, they have developed strategies to ensure that they excel in these

summative kind of assessments, without necessarily benefitting from what should have been a

constructive build up to their knowledge.

Theories of Assessment in Higher Education

Formative and Diagnostic Assessment

The formative assessment gives information and data on an assessment that is

detrimental for enhancing continued learning for the student, one that provides a change in

classroom learning and other additional aspects (Brookhart, 2004). Assessments are used as a

means to help in guiding the teaching and learning process, which is then used to make an

acquisition of information and make an observation of the learner’s skills and abilities gained

as a result of learning. Formative assessment is a way of enticing hard-pressed instructors to

source better and more refined resources and education materials, while still paying attention

to their quality. Formative assessments act as a stepping stone for the student to gain a higher

level of attainment, and not just acknowledging and measuring it (Bentley, 2006). Diagnostic

assessment has also been introduced into the curriculum as a means to tell whether a new

learner is able to cope with the demands of his course.

Informal formative assessments take place in the course of occurrence of events, but

they must not be necessarily stipulated in the design of the curriculum. These types of

assessments include instantaneous feedback as the students take part in a certain activity that

is causative of continued learning (Barbar, 2014). In fact, formative assessments are primarily

characterized as being continuous, although this is never a necessity (Brookhart, 2004). They

can even be occasional, and still manage to embody the important support that is required for

student’s continued learning. Formal formative assessments are mostly administered by the

academic staff or supervisors, quite different from informal formative assessments which can

be administered by anybody (Barnett, 2007). In these assessments, students have the

autonomy to acquire knowledge and contribution from outside parties such as parents and

guardians, who are not formally part of the learning process. Under the informal formative

assessments, a student can be able to gauge his or her abilities by simply studying a peer’s

assessment and then gauging themselves on the ability to tackle the same issue (Anderson,

1986).

Summative Assessment

Summative assessments give information and data that is necessary for making final

decisions for instance when an instructor assigns end of term grades for progression to a

further grade (Brookhart, 2004). These assessments are also used to gauge the extent to which

the student has grasped the course subject matter and also how well the instructor did deliver.

Many individuals think of assessments in a summative sense, associating them with final

decisions (Borba, 2012). This is despite the fact that these assessments are attached to

formative, integrative and other many theories of assessment. Due to the fact that summative

assessments are definitive, validity and reliability are the main stuff of debate. In recent

decades, researchers have been attempting to link both summative and formative assessments

since the two models form the same evaluative analysis (Isaac, 2016). Summative

assessments are however very moderated and are mostly focused on technical guidelines and

specifications.

In most cases, summative assessments are designed to tell the extent to which the

student has grasped the objectives that were set forth in the Curriculum. This is quite different

from Formative assessments which looks at how well the student is able to conceptualize the

course work and apply it in real world cases. Some assessments are purely designed to be

simultaneously formative and summative (Crisp, 2012). They may be formative in the sense

that the student is expected to gain from the feedback that has been given to them and a

summative aspect in that the grade or the result that has been formally awarded will be used in

delivering a final decision. Summative assessments can only qualify to become formative if

the student learns from them. A disadvantage with summative assessments is the fact that

feedback occasionally comes too late, for the student to grasp any real knowledge from them,

which eradicates the formative characteristic in them (Ashburn, 2006).

Integrative Assessment

In this theory of assessments, a local and traditional approach to research and

evaluation is necessary to the development of an integrative assessment as an intrinsic part of

learning. Mauritz Johnson’s intentionality in education made a proposal for an evaluation

schema for a continuous and integrated model of assessments that was to be engraved in the

learning process. Adherents such as Paul Zachos went ahead and made a development of a

whole model of evaluative processes to develop a curriculum (Crisp, 2012). Under an

integrative approach, the student derives the learning experience through a demonstration of

case studies where the various issues under study are emphasised. As such, an integrative

assessment is mostly carried out at a classroom level (Micro level).

Teacher Assessments

This is a form of assessment that is administered by teachers as part of the learning

process by the student. The instructor is, therefore, able to make an assessment of the ability

of the student to behave themselves in class, handle difficult situations and utilise the

information learnt as a focus point for their efforts. These forms of assessments tend to

develop a student profile for each and every pupil based on their strengths and weaknesses

over a range of subjects (Borba, 2012). This theory is however applied to longitudinal

approaches in the measurement of student performance. This theory acts as an explanation of

how well theory relates to practice.

Assessment is not an end, but it’s the beginning of any educational improvement. In

higher education, the term “assessment” has various meanings. It can be a process of grading

student’s assignment or a testing method imposed on the education institute for external

accountability or it can be of any method designed to gather information about a successful

program, course or a project assignment. To focus on the main objective of an assessment in the

education institutions, Assessment is described as a tool to improve learning way of students by

collecting and analyzing information systematically. There are various methods and tools of

assessment in higher education as well as its advantages and disadvantages in the South African

education system.

Methods of assessment:

There are various methods of assessment in South African higher education system.

Performing an effective and appropriative method of assessment relevant to their requirement is

completely chosen by an educational institute. Formative assessment of student learning includes

classroom assessment techniques and teaching methods. During the learning process, Formative

assessment technique is used to monitor the student learning and to provide feedback. The

collected feedback is used to determine the part where a student is struggling to learn so that the

faculty members can modify their teaching method and students can improve their learning.

These assessments have low point of values and it happens often in the semester.

Informal assessment techniques:

Written reflections are also referred as minute papers or muddiest points. This technique

of assessment is done by asking the students to answer to one or two simple questions at the end

of a learning session or after finishing an outside class activity. The questions should be simple

like “What was the important topic you learned today?”, “What was the topic you don’t

understand?” Answers to these questions shows what students have learned and which part they

need more explanations. It saves time and immediate feedback can improve learning quickly.

Student opinions, behaviors or attitudes in learning can be collected either during a learning

session or outside the class by means of Polls or Surveys. To check the students understanding, a

faculty should give a pause for every few minutes in a session and ask questions to know

whether students are following the topic. Reflective questions or Wrappers are asked in the

wrapping activity which helps students to improve their skills and to monitor their own learning.

Formal assessment techniques:

To encourage a powerful peer to peer learning method, In-class activities are

recommended. Students are asked to work in pairs or groups to have meaningful discussions in

the class and to solve problems with the help of their group members. Faculty member should

walk around the classroom and help the students who find difficulties in their works. Quizzes are

another great method of assessment that don’t have to be included in the student grades. It is

used to assess prior knowledge of students and to create a friendly competition inside the class.

A quiz session before starting a lecture can be helpful to identify what their students have already

known about the topic, what are they going to learn more about the topic. It can cover a wide

variety of topics in a short period of time. In-class activity involving group activities and team

work is helpful to improve skills and submit a project to obtain grade.

Another technique of assessment is called as Summative technique which has high point

of values. Summative assessment happens at the end of a course or a semester to determine the

extent to which students have accomplished the expected outcome of learning. This technique

includes mid-term exam, final exam and tests during a semester. Exam question paper is set by

the skilled faculty members with multiple choice questions, true or false, short answer and essay

questions to let the students write what all they have learned. Assignment paper, oral

presentation and project are used to assess the student’s skill and their ability to apply their

knowledge creatively. This method of assessment is very important and used in the learning

process. These types of assessment provide a wide opportunity for students to showcase their

multiple talents and creativity. It is the most valid method to assess the skill development.

Students along with the faculty members should know the progress they have made in a

semester. A best way to know this is by submitting a portfolio at the end of course. There are

various forms of portfolio like learning portfolio, job portfolio, personal portfolio, development

portfolio, performance portfolio and assessment portfolio. Portfolios can include student

learning reflection and their performance during the semester. Process assessment is used to

identify the milestones of a project to be reached, activities to be undertaken to reach the

milestone and products to be delivered in the course to attain the final goal of learning.

Tools of assessment:

Understanding of learning should be reflected in multidimensional, integrated and

performance over time to make an assessment effective. The purpose of the program should be

clearly and implicitly stated to work the assessment in a best way. Assessment focus on

identifying the result but it is also necessary to identify the various experiences of students to

achieve that result. For a best result, assessment should be carried out periodically but not just at

the end of a semester. Examination and program assessment are the two main tools of assessment

in higher education. Student learning and their experience has to be assessed to find out whether

students have obtained the knowledge, skills and talents related to their course of study. For this

purpose, program assessment has been made. There are three main objectives each education

institution should keep in mind before creating and establishing an assessment tool. The three

main objectives are to improve, to prove and to inform. Based on the result of an assessment,

education institutions can determine whether it have obtained the expected outcome or not and

how to improve the learning process to achieve the expected result.

Program Assessment:

A program assessment should be designed in a way to meet the certain criteria in order to

determine the student learnings and the outcome results effectively. It should be more systematic

in an open and orderly way of obtaining information about student performance over time. The

program assessment should be build within the integral part of program or department. It should

have multi-face to use many methods and multiple sources for gathering information in multi

dimensions. The purpose of assessment is not to gather the information for a record but to

improve the education system. Program assessment takes effort to build an evidence to improve

the program or course assignment. By making the program assessment more effective, education

institutions can set an objective by determining what they are trying to achieve, how well they

are performing to achieve their objective and how can they improve their process to obtain the

expected result. There are some steps to achieve an effective program assessment. The steps

begins with agreeing on the process, creating objectives for learning outcomes, finding out the

activities for each objective, brainstorming and evaluating significant measures, determining

methods to assess, collecting information, using the information to plan for improvement,

implementing the plan and ends with announcing the results. Many colleges and academies use

the program assessment tool to accomplish their goals. The goal of the program is to get a

detailed learning outcome and objective of the program is the skill students possess which reflect

the goal. Program assessment involves the following activities:

Open discussion with faculty of each department about the topics describing a student,

what skills he have, what does he know and what can be done to improve his knowledge.

Collect and verify the materials of a student including his syllabus, course outlines,

course assignments, classroom tests, handbooks.

Gather information about the student from other departments and react to the goals and

objectives of that department.

Determine what goals should be reduced and what goals should be improved based on the

student information gathered before.

Once the program goal is determined, develop a program objective to transfer goals into

student performance and knowledge (Mass.edu, 2016).

The different aspect of student learning is determined by three types of learning objectives:

cognitive, affective and behavioral objective. It defines what a student should know, what he

should care about and what he should be able to do. Write the program objectives in simple

language describing the possible outcomes. Members of the department should accept and

support the objectives. The assessment design can be made as a formal document to circulate

outside the department or an informal one to keep within the department. The document should

contain learning goals and objectives, process of learning, methods and process of assessment,

outcome and results, decisions and recommendations to improve learning. Assessment plan that

describes curriculum and uses available source is most effective.

Competency exams, grades, capstone courses are all the various methods of assessing

learning of students. Department members and instructors are already using these methods to

assess student learning. Assessment matrix includes two measures of assessing students: direct

and indirect measure. Direct method wants the student to show his skills and knowledge through

tests, presentations, seminars, classroom assignments, essays, projects, etc. Indirect method asks

the student to reflect on his learning through interviews and surveys but not asking him to

display his learning and skills. To identify an effective assessing method, identify what should be

assessed. In general, student learning, their attitudes, perceptions and services of department

should be assessed. Assessment includes what a student know, what can he able to do, and what

his attitude towards curriculum, mentoring, learning, preparation for exams, scheduling for

course and co-curricular activities. It also includes assessing departmental services like advising

and counseling the distressed students, providing library and computer assistance, tutoring slow

learners, financial and medical aiding, conducting orientation program for new students.

Most faculties think assessment means grading of students exams. The overall

performance and proficiency of students are evaluated globally and given a grade. Grades are

important for student achievements. But, the problem in grading is it does not display the

individual performance or a specific skill of the students. It does not provide detailed information

necessary to find a student performance on the program. Grades provide only little bit

information about the overall success of a program to help students. To make program

assessment a most effective assessment tool, it is important to link the preferred method,

outcomes and the expected results of assessment. Final step is to produce the assessment report.

The content of report should include the assessment process, purpose of assessment, findings,

improvement plans and evaluations. Assessment report need not be a formal document as it is

going to be presented only to the department.

Benefits of assessment:

Assessment and its related feedback are important to student learning especially in higher

education. It has a significant effect on communicating to students about what they can succeed

and what they cannot succeed in doing. Hence, student and faculty can work on improving his

ability to achieve success in everything. It builds students level of confidence. Assessment gives

information about skills and knowledge of students when they enter into a course. Hence, college

faculty members can create objective to focus on the skills and knowledge of the students that

they should be gained upon completing the course. It will become easy for the faculty to identify

thinking and responding level of students. Faculty members can depend less on the comments

displayed on the evaluation of students as reference to the success of teaching. Because of the

assessment, as it gives notable information about student learning and appropriate information

from evaluation of students. Also, it provides available information about the curriculum effects

and richer data about the method of teaching. So, faculty members can involve in more useful

discussions about the level of achievements of each student, which become helpful to make

better decisions about how the department can improve its student level of achievements. With

the help of assessment, which provide more significant data about instruction, faculty staffs can

make notable decisions about creativity or experimental or innovative projects in instruction and

achieve success more easily. Department members can have a high degree of satisfaction in their

teaching methodology as the assessment process gives a proof or evidence that faculty members

can bring an improvement in student learning. Also, assessment is useful to provide larger

information about need of students and their accomplishments. Hence, it will be easy for the

department members to create directions for instructional development in future. Faculty

members of the department can take the important decisions regarding analyzing the goals,

identifying an assessment process, determining the method to achieve their goals and indicating

directions for future student learning as assessment is done largely by the faculty members.

Learning based assessment is used to focus on the wide opportunities available for the

students to develop their ability to assess themselves by self evaluation or peer to peer review

technique. It also helps students to make aware of their own skills and knowledge experience and

to improve their performance. By using formative assessment and summative assessment it gives

wide chances for students to improve their skills and knowledge and it uses authentic assessment

methods for the effective outcome. A well designed and innovative assessment can bring

enthusiasm for active learning among students. Students pay more attention to learn to become

top in his department. Assessment through technology like online discussion blog or online

examination can introduce new skills to students. Through assessment, a student’s special skill is

identified and he can be given a special training to improve his skill. Standardized exam is used

to test large number of students in a short period of time with external evaluation. Local exams

are used for a pretest assessment to obtain results more quickly and to improve student

knowledge before their exam. Assessments through essay writing, oral exams, presentation,

exhibition, research papers, and practical exams are encouraging students to do active learning

outside the academic. They also promote creativity of students and connect faculty with students

through feedback loop. Assessment through surveys and questionnaires can be used to collect

information from individual student. Portfolio assessments can increase participation of students

in the assessment process. Overall, assessment is used to highlight the strength of students,

identify the weakness of students and provide a method of improvement of their skills,

knowledge and learning experience (Educause.net, 2016).

Drawbacks of assessment:

In course based assessment and direct assessment methods, differences among

departments and instructors can have effect on the results. Faculty members may find reluctant to

share the obtained results with the entire department. Assessment through hand written tests, pre

test, post test, entry and exit test become complex. It takes long time and comparative skill to

create appropriate questions that are related to student learning and course. It is difficult to

create question paper for pre-post testing that varies with time. Student’s ability and their overall

learning are not able to be assessed by graded homework. Rubric dimension to reflect the

outcomes of student learning is difficult and it takes long time and more skill. Capstone course

project makes labor intensive for both students and department members. A high stake course

and project can induce anxiety of student and result in assessment lesser than the actual

performance. Assessment through mapping of concept or knowledge makes it difficult to

compare across students. Also, it is difficult to get objective judgment on student abilities. For

art, entertainment, sports and healthcare, expert’s judgment is needed to assess student’s

performance in the relevant field which usually takes expert’s time. Students with language

difficulties find it difficult to do oral presentation. Also, it is difficult for the faculty members to

design questions related to several students. Difficult to assess through essay writing,

presentation, exhibition, and seminar as content varies widely among several students based on

their creative skills (Clark, 2016). Alternatively, it may be judged based on presentation rather

than content. Examples given by students may not match with the examples given by faculty

members. So, it is difficult to judge creative writing papers. Surveys and questionnaire

assessments may only able to assess student’s communication skill but not the general learning.

Through outside evaluations, without partiality an expert can assess student’s overall

performance and ability but it takes time and labor cost for experts or external judges.

Assessments make students to feel pressured and affect their actual performance. In some

education institutes, reassessment is conducted for students who could not score well in their

original assessment. Access to technology and computer needed for online assessments are not

cost effective. Health issues and stress may have influence on the student’s performance.

Conclusion:

Thus, assessment in higher education plays an important role in the development of

student learning and teaching method. With the various theories and methods of assessment, the

education institutes should ensure that they are assessing the student’s ability and their faculty’s

teaching methods in a right way. Also, it is important to make improvements based on the result

of an assessment otherwise there is no use of conducting an assessment. It is necessary to

conduct assessment throughout the course and not just at the end of the course. Education

institutes improve the learning process and meet their responsibilities to student and public.

Through successful assessments in higher education, South Africa achieves a notable

development in education system and it brings skilled and knowledgeable graduates to the

country every year.

Convergent and Divergent Assessments

Convergent assessments refers to those sets of assessments that test whether the

students are able to fulfil any objectives that had been outlined prior to the commencement of

the course. Divergent assessments look to evaluate whether the student are able to succeed in

a more open ended scenario (Crisp, 2012). Since the key purpose and objective of higher

education is to ensure that students have the autonomy to learn and apply the knowledge that

they do learn in class, the module and theory of assessments that are applied in the schools

should try to encompass both convergent and divergent approaches to learning (Barbar,

2014).

Computer Assisted Assessment

These kinds of assessments move to make use of the capabilities and developments in

the field of information communication technology (Crisp, 2012). Institutions have been

developing assessments where they rethink or even relearn aspects of their assessment

practice. Many researchers have emphasized on the need for instructors and administrators to

rely and align their strategies with innovation, through assessments (Crisp, 2012). The

assessment components are put together, through collaboration by all involved parties which

ensures that the assessment is both acceptable, reliable and valid. In addition, there is need for

the development of a data bank that will ensure that the process of administration is smooth

and free of any hitches (Isaac, 2016).

Work Based Assessments

These are kinds of assessment that take place in an actual work place setting, with

their preference being in technical subjects. This theory of assessment aims at integrating both

academic and vocational education closer together for a developmental enhancement of the

assessment experience (Wangenge-Ouma, 2012). They are often continuous assessments and

are based on competence and the ability of the student to perform related tasks and functions

to a particular acceptable standard. This is based on the current belief that good assessments

should go beyond competencies to advising the learner, through practical knowledge on the

next step in their career.

The Achievements and Areas of Improvement for the Higher Education in South Africa

Since the end of Apartheid in 1994, the higher education sector can boast to have achieved

quite a milestone. The very first outstanding achievement is the increase in the Number of black

South Africans who have been enrolled in institutions of higher learning (Nkosi, 2013). The

population of Native South Africans has grown by up to 80% (Vally, 2015). This is a step in the

right direction towards achieving equality. The output of research papers and projects has also

been on the rise in the last two decades. The government has put considerable effort in the

learning and teaching in these institutions of higher learning. The government has also made

available and increased Financial Aid to the needy students (Vally, 2015). There has also been a

national coordination in addressing gaps that continually are identified in the sector.

Despite the above achievements in the higher education sector, there is still a lot that needs

to be done to make the higher education relevant and useful to the Native South Africans. To

start with, the sector has become more volatile even beyond the levels witnessed during the

Apartheid era. The common citizen (Ntshoe and Selesho, 2016) has not realized economic equity

and social transformation. The sector is still underfunded especially in terms of availability of

Financial Aid to the needy and bright South Africans (Ntshoe and Selesho, 2016). The student

enrollment has increased same case to their expectations and especially from the government.

This has increased the ration of student to their teachers, which negatively affects the quality of

education. Students being the free agents of change in the society (Monchinski, 2010), they have

the right to education, knowledge and access to government aid. The government therefore needs

to work closely with the students to develop ways in which these students can be used to drive

change in the society in order to achieve an equitable and just society.

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