Option 3: Redesign your assessment - Redistribute assessment weighting

The two options discussed above, i.e. removing an assessment altogether and making an assessment formative will require some redistribution of weighting. If there is one particular assessment that you feel is more vulnerable, and you do not want to remove it, then you can consider reshifting the weighting of this assessment and make it lower stake. Some questions to consider when deciding to do that: 

  • Is the length of the assessment appropriate to the new weighting? 
  • Is effort needed to perform the assessment to a good standard appropriate to the weighting? 
  • Can the ILOs initially attached to the assessment still be met within the constraints of the assessment? 
  • Will the change in weighting affect marking criteria? 

In some cases a change in weighting will have no knock on effect on other aspects of assessment but in some cases it will. It is therefore important to take this into account. It is also important to make sure all the markers understand the change and what it means in terms of expectations of what performance across different grade boundaries looks like. Similarly, it is important to ensure that students understand the new module level strategy and what is required in terms of performance at different grade boundaries but also in terms of effort (i.e. indicative number of hours spent on each assessment).