Question 1: What are we expecting the students to know and/or be able to do, that is required for the assessment, but they are not learning as part of this module?

Frequently, we rely on students’ prior knowledge and skills to allow them to complete an assessment task. We expect students to have gained this knowledge and developed those skills outside of the module that is being assessed. For instance, asking students to prepare a presentation, assumes that the students are familiar with public speaking and possibly with the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint.

Similarly, we expect students to have some prior knowledge and experience with specific assessment types e.g. writing a report. It is important to remember that our students come from different entry points. Therefore, the expectations on prior knowledge and skills need to be clearly communicated to students.

At Level 5 and 6, we expect students to have developed their assessment literacy through assessment tasks that have been completed at previous modules. This could be clearly communicated to both staff and students by establishing a transparent assessment strategy at course level that shows how different assessment tasks are interlinked, with a focus on both the knowledge acquired, and the skills developed.

With a transparent assessment strategy that shows how assessment tasks are connected throughout the course, the students could have the option to refer to prior assessment tasks and engage with the feedback received.

By identifying the expectations on prior knowledge and skills, the module/team can further signpost students to resources to help them refresh their knowledge. 

In resources, you can find a template for collecting such information. 

In theory, as this is considered pre-existing knowledge, limited additional time should be taken into account for those elements, when estimating the notional time-on-task for assessment (see Step 2).