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Assessment and Feedback in a Post-Pandemic Era: A Time for Learning and Inclusion’

08 Jul 2021 | Dr Patrick Baughan The editor, Patrick Baughan, Advance HE Senior Learning Adviser, introduces the report

Assessment and Feedback in a Post-Pandemic Era: A Time for  Learning and Inclusion

We are delighted to announce the publication of a major new volume on assessment and feedback in higher education. Entitled Assessment and Feedback in a Post-Pandemic Era: A Time for Learning and Inclusion and edited by Patrick Baughan. The work begins with an introduction by Dr Edd Pitt (Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Kent) and comprises 19 papers by more than 40 authors. Contributors include: Kay Sambell and Sally Brown; Chris Rust, Berry O’Donovan and Margaret Price; Edd Pitt and Kathleen Quinlan; Sam Elkington; and Aranee Manoharan. The publication also features important papers by new and emerging authors on assessment and feedback, to produce a highly eclectic and timely collection. 

As its title indicates, the overall focus addresses the central issues of assessment and feedback during and ‘post’ pandemic, and the vital importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in assessment and feedback. As we have learned, the pandemic has been long-lasting, its impact on higher education has been tremendous, and its effect on how we assess and provide feedback to our learners will, in many cases, be permanent. 

The publication includes research papers, case studies, disciplinary examples and, at the end, two papers that address assessment of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) – but all papers ‘talk to’ the underlying themes of assessment and feedback ‘post-pandemic’, and equality, diversity and inclusion as central components of assessment and feedback. We are really excited to see the launch of Assessment and Feedback in a Post-Pandemic Era and take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in its writing and development.

Background to the new Advance HE Publication:

The publication has its origins in the Assessment and Feedback Symposium held in October 2020, led by Patrick Baughan and Erica Morris. The symposium brought together a wide range of speakers, who addressed equally diverse issues in relation to assessment and feedback, in a series of presentations, workshops and discussions. The publication draws on and expands on this symposium. Presenters were invited to submit papers for the publication, and many have. In addition, other colleagues, with expertise and experience in assessment and feedback in higher education, have also contributed - further enriching the work.

A new resource for higher education professionals – and a companion volume:

Assessment and Feedback in a Post-Pandemic Era comprises 19 papers and includes the work of more than 40 authors. These authors span colleagues writing about assessment and feedback for the first time and / or who are relatively new in their higher education careers, to established experts in the field, who have been contributing to the field for many years. The work is broken into three parts: Part A is entitled Assessment and academic standards in the post pandemic assessment landscape, Part B is entitled Inclusivity and assessment, and the (shorter) Part C is entitled Assessment and sustainability. Readers will notice the breadth of coverage across the papers, incorporating research studies, disciplinary examples, ideas for practice, as well as more conceptual pieces.

Assessment and Feedback in a Post-Pandemic Era also follows on from and forms a companion volume to On Your Marks: Learner-focused Feedback Practices and Feedback Literacy, edited by Patrick Baughan and published by Advance HE in 2020. It is still available via the Advance HE website (member access needed).

We would like to thank all the authors for contributing to the publication. We are particularly grateful to Edd Pitt for writing such an excellent introduction, as well as Jess Moody and Erica Morris who each significantly contributed to editing the final volume.

Pandemic or Post-pandemic?

In devising the publication, we reflected over whether to use the term ‘pandemic era’ or ‘post-pandemic era’ for the title. For the aforementioned symposium, we referred to ‘pandemic’, but for the publication, we elected to talk of a ‘post-pandemic era’. In reality, we are of course not yet ‘post-pandemic’, but we wanted the title to convey some sense of optimism and future thinking.

Dr Patrick Baughan is a Senior Learning Adviser at Advance HE. His focus areas include learning and teaching, assessment, academic integrity, and education for sustainable development (ESD). His recent work includes editing the Advance HE publication On Your Marks: Learner-focused Feedback Practices and Feedback Literacy (2020) and as a lead author for the new QAA and Advance HE Education for Sustainable Development Guidance (2021). Patrick has previously held positions at UCL, City University (London) and the University of Leicester, running both programmes of study and various institutional initiatives. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters in fields including assessment and feedback, environmental education, and qualitative research methodology. His PhD (Educational Research, Lancaster University, 2019) examines sociologists’ perspectives about sustainability in higher education, using phenomenography. He co-founded the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Network for the Society for Research in Education (SRHE) and is a convener of the Researching Higher Education Network for the European Educational Research Association (EERA).

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