Evaluating the Weekly-Assessed Tutorial Sheet approach to assessment: background, pedagogy and impact

Abstract

This paper presents the results of using student-unique, weekly-assessed tasks to overcome a low examination performance in a first-year engineering module. In this instance, the weekly assessment tasks were created by off-the-shelf and bespoke software to form an integrated computer-assisted assessment (CAA) programme. This programme set, delivered, collected, marked and provided prompt feedback on the students’ work. The CAA was a set of student-unique Weekly-Assessed Tutorial Sheets (WATS). The rationale for the modified assessment strategy is presented together with the examination performance figures before and after the introduction of WATS.