Evaluation of an academic support workshop on assessment by hospitality lecturers at a University in South Africa

Abstract

Assessment of and for learning plays a critical role in helping students achieve the intended learning outcomes, as well as providing a mechanism with which to determine the extent to which learning outcomes have been attained. Without pedagogically sound assessment strategies, lecturers and universities will not succeed in their roles of promoting student learning and success. Consequently, research into assessment and how it is understood by academics needs to be foregrounded. The aim of the study was to assess perceptions of hospitality lecturers on the efficacy of a workshop on assessment conducted at a university in South Africa. A qualitative research design was used, in which the written responses of 5 purposively selected participants were used to evaluate the workshop. An open-ended questionnaire was used to collect data from participants. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis and verbatim statements from participants. The results indicated that participants benefited from the workshop and intended to use formative, summative and criterion-referenced assessment in the evaluation of learning outcomes. The need to capacitate university lecturers on how to design and implement differentiated assessment strategies was therefore the major recommendation of the study. Key words: formative assessment; summative assessment; criterion-based assessment; measurement; learning.