Dr Christopher Ricketts

National Teaching Fellow 2008 Dr Chris Ricketts is Director of Assessment for Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry. Widely regarded as the University of Plymouth's assessment guru, Chris led the university-wide implementation of computer-aided assessment. This is of real value to students because it gives them greater control over their own assessment timing and provides instant feedback. After joining the University of Plymouth Chris's interests turned towards the importance of assessment as part of the learning process and the award of the new Peninsula Medical School created a need for such assessment expertise. Peninsula is now becoming renowned for its innovative use of progress tests where all students sit graduate-level tests and can see their progress towards qualification. Chris has also ensured that assessment serves the students learning needs, initiating an innovative process of getting students to write formative assessment items for students in earlier years. With a degree in mathematics, Chris has spent much of his working life as a statistician. Initially he worked in medical research and has a PhD in Haematology from the University of Wales. He then joined the British Antarctic Survey as a biometrician and worked on models of energetics of birds and seals and the whole Antarctic marine ecosystem. During this period he ran statistics courses for staff and developed his love of teaching. Chris is now working on more theoretical aspects of assessment and methods to promote assessment to support student learning.