Assessment matters – it is a powerful driver of learning and of student approaches to learning. My work in academic development has been underpinned by scholarship and research activity. I was co-author with my colleague Prof Sue Bloxham of’Developing Assessment in Higher Education: A Practical Guide’ (2007). Our research papers focused on grading student work and have had some influence on changes in policy and practice (Bloxham, Boyd & Orr 2011; Bloxham & Boyd 2012; Boyd & Bloxham 2014). I am currently part of the Advance HE ‘degree Standards’ project which provides courses for external examiners and runs calibration projects to develop shared academic standards in subject disciplines (project site; blog review of the external examiner course). I have been conference chair of the Assessment in Higher Education network for several years, an international conference and network: https://aheconference.com/. Recently I presented a paper on authentic assessment at an online conference organised by colleagues at the University of Desarollo in Chile, it is available on video (as part of ‘Transforming Assessment to Promote Learning – my presentation follows Prof David Boud at minutes 40 to 67).
Bloxham, S. & Boyd, P. (2007) Developing Effective Assessment in Higher Education: a practical guide. London: Mc Graw Hill / Open University Press.
Bloxham, S., Boyd, P. & Orr, S. (2011) Mark my words: the role of assessment criteria in UK higher education grading practices. Studies in Higher Education, 36 (6): 655-670.
Bloxham, S. & Boyd, P. (2012) Accountability in grading student work: securing academic standards in a twenty-first century quality assurance context. British Educational Research Journal, 38 (4), 615-634.
Boyd, P. & Bloxham, S. (2014) A situative metaphor for teacher learning: the case of university tutors learning to grade student coursework. British Educational Research Journal, 40 (2), 337-352.
Real World Educate 