How can you assess and give feedback across disciplines?

1 Define the learning outcomes

Before you start assessing and giving feedback, you need to define the learning outcomes of your course or project. What do you want your students to know, understand, and do by the end of the learning experience? How do these outcomes align with the disciplinary standards and expectations of your field or fields? How do they reflect the interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary nature of your course or project? By clarifying the learning outcomes, you can communicate them clearly to your students and use them as a basis for designing your assessment tasks and criteria.

2 Choose appropriate assessment methods

Depending on the learning outcomes, you may need to choose different assessment methods for different disciplines or aspects of your course or project. For example, you may use essays, reports, presentations, portfolios, or exams to assess students' knowledge, understanding, and skills in different domains. You may also use peer assessment, self-assessment, or group assessment to encourage students' collaboration, reflection, and feedback skills. When choosing your assessment methods, consider the following questions: How well do they align with the learning outcomes? How valid and reliable are they? How feasible and manageable are they? How inclusive and accessible are they?

3 Design clear and transparent assessment criteria

To ensure that your assessment and feedback are fair and consistent, you need to design clear and transparent assessment criteria that reflect the learning outcomes and the assessment methods. Your assessment criteria should specify what you expect from your students and how you will judge their performance. You should also provide rubrics, scales, or descriptors that indicate the levels of achievement and the corresponding marks or grades. By designing clear and transparent assessment criteria, you can help your students understand what they need to do to succeed and how they can improve their work.

4 Provide constructive and timely feedback

Feedback is an essential part of assessment and learning, as it helps students identify their strengths and weaknesses, monitor their progress, and plan their next steps. To provide constructive and timely feedback across disciplines, you need to follow some good practices, such as: Use your assessment criteria as a reference point for your feedback. Focus on the most important aspects of the students' work and avoid overwhelming them with too many comments. Provide specific and actionable suggestions for improvement and avoid vague or generic statements. Balance positive and negative feedback and highlight the students' achievements as well as their areas for development. Provide feedback as soon as possible after the assessment and allow time for students to act on it.

5 Encourage dialogue and interaction

Assessment and feedback should not be a one-way communication from you to your students, but a dialogue and interaction that fosters mutual understanding, respect, and learning. To encourage dialogue and interaction across disciplines, you need to create opportunities for your students to: Ask questions and clarify any doubts or confusions about the assessment and feedback. Share and discuss their work and feedback with their peers and learn from each other's perspectives and experiences. Respond to your feedback and reflect on their learning and development. Seek further feedback and guidance from you or other sources if needed.

6 Evaluate and improve your practice

Finally, assessing and giving feedback across disciplines is not a static or fixed process, but a dynamic and evolving one that requires constant evaluation and improvement. To evaluate and improve your practice, you need to collect and analyze evidence of the effectiveness and impact of your assessment and feedback on your students' learning and satisfaction. You can use various methods, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, or portfolios, to gather feedback from your students and yourself. You can also consult with your colleagues, mentors, or experts from different disciplines and exchange ideas and best practices. By evaluating and improving your practice, you can enhance your assessment and feedback skills and contribute to the quality of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?