Dr Tansy Jessop

‘Transforming the Experience of Students through Assessment’ (TESTA) has helped programmes in more than 50 universities in the UK, Australia, South Africa and India to rethink assessment and feedback, using evidence and well-founded principles about how students learn best. Findings from TESTA show that the structure of degree programmes often inhibits student learning, and may prevent lecturers from identifying the source of common assessment and feedback challenges. This interactive workshop will examine the principles, tools and approaches used in conducting TESTA. Participants will explore authentic case studies and anonymous data as a way into the TESTA process. The workshop will explore the transformative nature of using TESTA, and ways in which programmes have improved assessment and feedback as a result of going through the process. For more information, see www.testa.ac.uk

Who the Masterclass is aimed at?

Programme leaders                                                                                              Lecturers                                                                                                                                 Those frustrated by the fragmentation of student learning                                                                                                                          Dedicated lecturers whose modular efforts and innovations in assessment and feedback are somehow diluted.

What delegates should gain out of attending?

A re-conceptualisation of assessment as a structural and connected process                                                                                                                            Approaches to fostering coherence and connection through assessment and feedback                                                                                                                          Tools, methods and approaches which facilitate whole programme changes to assessment                                                                                                                     Strategies for joining the dots across and between modules, in feedback and assessment.

Dr Tansy Jessop is Head of Learning and Teaching at the University of Winchester. She leads the TESTA National Teaching Fellowship Project, and was project manager of FASTECH, a JISC funded project to enhance assessment and feedback through technology, using student change agents. Most recently, she has run a British Council funded partnership with two Indian universities. Tansy started her career as a secondary school teacher in South Africa, and completed a PhD on teacher development in rural primary schools in KwaZulu-Natal. She has worked as an education consultant for UK and Australian universities, the British Council, the UK’s Department for International Development, and the Mandela Foundation. Tansy’s research interests include teacher development; social justice; assessment and feedback; and narrative research methods. http://winchester.academia.edu/TansyJessop