Assessment transparency refers to sharing of clear assessment criteria and indicators with learners, ensuring that they fully understand what is expected from them in terms of learning outcomes. This may promote the learners’ accountability for their own learning process and reinforce their engagement.
It is important to note that the criteria and indicators should be timely communicated and can be negotiated with learners. Moreover, they can also be used to carry out peer assessment in specific development phases of an activity or project.
Techniques that educators can use to make assessments more transparent are:
- Clarify and articulate, from the beginning, the knowledge and competences that learners are supposed to develop;
- Double check your alignment between the learning outcomes and the assessment activities;
- Negotiate/ co-construct and clarify assessment criteria and indicators.
Most Learning Management Systems (LMSs) allow educators to add learning outcomes, as well as criteria and indicators, to activities throughout a course.