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Home Teaching, learning and assessment Practice Matters Practice Matters Issue 6: Assessment and Feedback - the roadshow issue
Practice Matters

Practice Matters: Issue 6

Welcome to the sixth issue of QAA’s Practice Matters. This bumper edition draws on the range of practice showcased at QAA’s Assessment and Feedback Roadshow, held in March 2026. Over four days we had 20 presentations from all types of providers across the UK, sharing a wealth of innovation and enhancements in assessment and feedback. You can catch up with or revisit session recordings on our dedicated event page.  

 

For this issue we have captured this practice into quick-read sets of reflective questions and top tips, organised into priority themes: assessment design, assessing process and not just product, assessment literacy, generative AI and authentic assessment, and compassionate assessment. Links to relevant session recordings and resources are included in each theme. 

 

We can see that many of the same good practices appear across different assessment approaches. This shows that effective assessment design cuts across pedagogic labels and ideas. Inclusive, compassionate, and authentic assessments often rely on similar principles and practices, which help to make expectations clearer, reduce hidden barriers, and strengthen assessment literacy. Together, these approaches support better student engagement and success. Our Roadshow speakers show that even small, practical changes can make a meaningful difference.


Assessment Design: inclusive and collaborative

Effective assessment design is central to student learning because assessment shapes not only what students do, but how they understand success. When assessments are designed inclusively - anticipating learner diversity rather than reacting to individual needs - they reduce hidden barriers and make expectations transparent. Collaboration with students strengthens assessment literacy, ensuring choices are meaningful, standards are clear, and learning outcomes remain rigorous. Together, inclusive and collaborative approaches promote fairness, engagement, and agency, enabling all students to demonstrate their learning authentically and confidently. 


Students working together

Reflective questions

 

  • Are you making assumptions about students’ understanding of the assessment questions and tasks that you set and their ability to unpack exactly what you are looking for in their work? 

  • Are your assessment questions disadvantaging students through an overuse of jargon, complex sentence structure and implied expectations? 

  • Where can you build optionality into your assessments to build inclusive practice and student agency? 

  • Can you extend student inclusion and agency to the co-creation of assessment?  

Top tips

 

  • Use clear, plain language, avoid vague command verbs, and state exactly what students are expected to do, how much to write/say, and what to include (charts, graphs, tables etc). This supports a diverse range of learners, reducing the amount of decoding they need to do before starting to answer. 

  • Design assessments inclusively from the outset, not through individual adjustments. For example, you can embed accessibility into assessment formats, language, and structure by default. 

  • When using oral assessment, provide clear preparation guidance, formative practice, allow thinking time, clarify that fluency does not equal knowledge, and embed reasonable adjustments. 

  • Real-time verbal feedback can enhance inclusivity by ensuring students understand judgments, reducing anxiety linked to long delays, and enabling clarification - particularly valuable for first-year and widening-participation students. 

  • Build inclusion through meaningful optionality in assessments. Flexible assessment does not mean unlimited or impractical options; even small, purposeful forms of optionality (e.g. format, timing windows, word-count flex, focus or approach) can significantly improve inclusion by allowing students to play to their strengths without diluting standards. 

  • For collaborative assessment design, involve students early, before assessments begin, to increase engagement and assessment literacy. 

  • Start co‑creation of assessments with low‑risk elements, or consider using bounded choice rather than full co-creation. Small interventions can significantly increase engagement and reduce non‑submission, especially in large cohorts, and allows students to influence assessment design without undermining learning outcomes or quality assurance. 

  • An example might be to co‑create assessment criteria or rubrics to build ownership and transparency.  


Assessing the learning process not just the product

Effective assessment design can focus on how students learn, not only on final assessment outputs. By making learning processes visible, assessment can increase students’ understanding of what they are being assessed on, support assessment literacy and confidence, and promote academic integrity especially in an AI-enabled context. Focusing on learning processes can give a more accurate picture of student capability and reduces reliance on hidden expectations or performance styles, promoting consistency and equity across programmes and markers. Effective assessment supports students to develop, explain, and reflect on their learning over time.  

 

Reflective questions

 

  • How does assessment make students’ thinking, decision‑making or judgement visible and explicit - not just through their final submission? 

  • What structured supportive opportunities are in place for students to practise, articulate and improve their learning before the final assessment? 

  • How are students expected to use feedback (rather than just receive it) to change or develop their work or approach? 

  • How are assessment criteria and expectations actively explored to show how they can be applied to learning, rather than just published?  

  • How can assessment design reduce hidden assumptions or barriers which might advantage some students over others? 

Top tips

 

  • Design assessments to show process as well as product by asking for reflection, explanation or justification alongside outputs. 

  • Scaffold assessment using formative, staged or low‑stakes activities rather than a single high‑stakes assessment point. 

  • Align timing of feedback with opportunities for improvement, so feedback feeds forward into future learning. 

  • Make assessment criteria usable, not just visible, by asking students to apply them to drafts or ongoing dialogue/conversations, as an iterative process. 

  • Take a programme‑level view of assessments, ensuring learning processes develop coherently across assessments, not in isolation. 

  • Make space and time in the curriculum for development of assessment literacy.

Further resources 

 

Roadshow presentations: 


Assessment Literacy

Assessment literacy is critical to student engagement and performance because it helps learners understand what is being assessed, why it matters, and how to succeed. When expectations, criteria, and standards are transparent and consistently communicated, students can direct their time and effort more effectively, reducing uncertainty and anxiety. Strong assessment literacy enables students to interpret feedback, recognise quality, and apply this understanding to future tasks, leading to deeper learning and improved outcomes. It also supports equity, ensuring that success is not dependent on prior knowledge of academic conventions but on a clear, shared understanding of assessment expectations. 

 

Reflective questions

 

  • Are all members of your programme team consistent and comprehensive in the information they provide about assessments? 

  • When trying to improve student assessment literacy, do you talk to students about what they do, and do not, understand about assessments?  

  • Are you open and explicit about the marking process with students? 

  • Do you provide any support in terms of how students manage their time in the preparation and production of their assessments? 

  • How can you use your existing assessment quality assurance processes to enhance both staff and student assessment literacy? 

Top tips

 

  • Providing standardised assessment briefs across the programme can reduce the amount of navigation of assessment requirements that students need to do. This could include submission title/task, assessment weighting, learning outcomes assessed, how to submit, format, submission time and date, the mark scheme with clear criteria and guidance and distinction on each grade band. 

  • Providing annotated answers across grade bands that explain the positive and negative features can better help students understand why an answer was awarded a specific grade. Sample answers with the marking criteria/rubric may not be enough to help students fully identify what you are looking for in assessments.  

  • This doesn’t have to create too much additional work – consider drawing on marked work from previous years. You can then embed this in an asynchronous online learning activity, and with an in-person dedicated assessment session (perhaps embedded in a scheduled teaching session) to talk through with students and close that loop.  

  • You can also more broadly to scaffold the assessment process: work with students to help them understand what is being assessed – knowledge, critical thinking, academic skills, employability/work-related skills etc.  

  • Then work with students to help them break down the assessment task into smaller steps, and explore the notional time and effort you would expect students to spend on these.  

  • Assessment literacy isn’t just about students.  Engaging in robust and continuous calibration processes across a programme team can be valuable in ensuring markers are applying criteria equally and consistently, particularly concerning elements such as originality and innovation.  

  • The outcomes of such continuous calibration can then be implemented in consistent messaging to students on assessment expectations across modules and the wider programme. 


Authentic Assessment and Generative AI

Authentic assessment focuses on tasks that mirror real-world challenges and provide opportunities for students to apply knowledge and skills in meaningful, practice-based contexts. This may involve consultancy-style activities or simulations in which learners engage with real or fictional clients to achieve agreed goals. Through the thoughtful integration of GenAI, authentic assessment can help students develop and demonstrate the skills needed to thrive in the contemporary workplace. 

 

student group authentic assessment

Reflective questions

 

  • Do your students understand what skills they are developing as part of an assessment? 

  • Are there ways in which you can redesign assessments to increase their relevance to your students' future careers? 

  • Do your assessments test both technical and human skills, including the ability to use GenAI effectively and responsibly and to engage with other people in a confident and professional way? 

  • Does your authentic assessment strategy provide opportunities for scaffolding and formative learning? 

  • If students are allowed to use Gen AI as part of an authentic assessment, how do you ensure they are accountable for the work they produce? 

Top tips

 

  • Harness existing industry alignments and involve employers where possible to ground assessments in real-world practice. 

  • Reframe dissertations as authentic assessments and highlight transferrable workplace skills, such as research design, project management, and independent problem-solving. 

  • Embed authenticity across the curriculum rather than concentrating it in one assessment task, with scaffolded opportunities for students to develop relevant skills prior to a high-stakes assessment. 

  • Incorporate critical reflection into assessments to make learning visible and require students to evaluate and articulate the skills they developed. 

  • Build short, targeted oral elements into an authentic assessment design to ensure that students can explain and justify their use of GenAI. 

  • Consider the additional time and resources that may be required to develop and support authentic assessments. 


Compassionate Assessment

Compassionate assessment focuses on student wellbeing and inclusivity, actively recognising and addressing distress or disadvantage. It designs assessments to be fair and supportive, whilst maintaining academic standards and rigour. The aim of a compassionate approach to assessment is to enable students to demonstrate their learning while reducing unnecessary stress or barriers to success. 

 

Reflective questions

 

  • Do your current assessment designs recognise the complexity of students’ lives and responsibilities?  

  • How often are students relying on mitigating or extenuating circumstances claims, and what might this reveal about the design, timing, or volume of assessments?  

  • How do your assessment policies demonstrate trust in your students - do they rely heavily on evidence-gathering and bureaucratic processes that may create additional barriers?  

  • Are assessment approaches effectively enabling students to demonstrate their learning?  

  • How well do assessment policies, support systems and channels of communication work together to create a fair, transparent and supportive experience for students?

Top tips

 

  • Review assessment briefs and deadlines through an inclusion lens. Consider flexible formats, staged submissions, and opportunities for students to demonstrate learning in different ways. Small design choices, such as clearer guidance or scaffolded tasks, can reduce unnecessary pressure. 

  • Treat high numbers of extensions or mitigating circumstances claims as a signal to review assessment timing and volume across a module or programme. Mapping assessment across the academic year can help identify clustering, overload, or unnecessary high-stakes tasks. 

  • Simplify policies and processes, and communicate expectations clearly. Systems that rely less on extensive evidence and more on reasonable trust can reduce bureaucracy for both students and staff without compromising academic standards. 

  • Consider changing the language of assessment ‘deadlines’ and instead create ‘submission windows’ which allow for flexibility and reduce the pressure associated with deadlines. 

  • Focus on what the assessment is actually measuring. Ensure learning outcomes remain clear and rigorous, whilst allowing flexibility in how students reach or demonstrate them - for example through alternative formats. 

Further resources

 

Roadshow presentations: 

QAA-funded Collaborative Enhancement Projects: 

Other resources:

See more in our Practice Matters series