Assessment Framework
Introduction and Summary
It is important that graduates of the TU Delft sufficiently master the final attainments of their degree programme to be meaningful for their professional life (civil effect). The final attainment levels are measured by a set of assessments. Therefore, good quality of assessments is crucial.
Definition
An assessment is an educational activity during which individual students demonstrate how well they master the learning objectives of a course, and during which their performance is measured. This information is shared with students to steer and/or evaluate their learning. Disambiguation of assessment terms can be found in section 3.1 and in the glossary in F.1.
Context
In order to have good quality assessments, the Executive Board, together with different stakeholders, has defined this ‘TU Delft Assessment Framework 2023-2028’. In defining this framework we have taken both external requirements (e.g. from the Higher Education and Research Act1) as well as TU Delft agreements (e.g. Model Teaching and Examination Regulations2, TU Delft Vision on Education3) into account.
Assessment building blocks that determine assessment quality
The TU Delft assessment is of good quality if all assessment aspects (assessment building blocks, see Figure 1) are of good quality and consistent with each other.
Assessment quality entails the quality and consistency of the following building blocks: 1) TU Delft assessment framework, 2) the faculties’ assessment policies, 3) the BSc’s and MSc’s programmes’ assessment plan, 4) the courses’ assessment plans, 5) the assessments itself, supported by 6) assessment competence, 7) the assessment organisation, and 8) the compliance with the legal framework. Adapted from the assessment web4.
The first five building blocks of assessmenta (see Figure 1) form a logical order from central to assessment level:
- TU Delft assessment framework
- Faculty assessment policy
- Programme assessment plan
- Course assessment plan
- Assessment
The final three building blocks are important at all levels, which they support.
- Assessment competence (of everybody with an assessment task)
- Assessment organisation (on all levels)
- Legal framework (on all levels)
Chapter 6 and Appendix D.1 indicate on a general level who is accountable, responsible, consulted and informed on what building block.
Topics
The TU Delft Assessment Framework 2023-2028 contains the following topics:
- Vision on assessment (chapter 2, building block 1): an overview of the assessment values and guidelines that form the backbone for the decisions that the TU Delft makes on assessment.
- Legal framework (chapter 2, building block 8): an overview of documents that have led to and follow from this assessment framework.
- TU Delft assessment agreements (chapter 3, building block 1 and 8): an overview of TU Delft wide agreements on assessment and their sources, which is or will be operationalised in the faculties’ assessment policies and/or other documents.
Next to these three chapters that describe TU Delft agreements, the following three chapters indicate how the TU Delft facilitates assessment quality:
- Assessment policies in the faculty (chapter 4, building block 2, 3, 4 and 6): an overview of how faculties ensure assessment quality through the faculty’s assessment policy, the programme’s assessment plan, and the course’s assessment plan.
- Assessment organisation (chapter 5, building block 7): an overview of who is responsible for relevant assessment tasks.
- Assessment competence (chapter 6, building block 6): an overview of how the TU Delft ensures that assessment stakeholders have sufficient assessment competence. This includes an overview on how the agreements in the first two chapters are operationalised.
In addition:
- Appendix F gives an overview of the assessment-related terminology and abbreviations.
Reading guide
Table 1 suggests per function type what the most relevant parts of the assessment framework are.
| Who | Chapter | ||||||||||||
| Sum-mary | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| Dean | S | 5 | 6.5 | D.1-D.3 | E | F | |||||||
| Director of education | S | 1 | 2 | 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.6, 3.9 | 4 | 5 | 6 | B | C.1 | D.1-D.3, D.5 | E | F | |
| Programme director | S | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5.1, 5.4-5.16-5.17 | 6.3, 6.5-6.6 | B | C.1 | D.1-D.3, D.5 | E | F | |
| Head of ESA | S | 3.1-3.3, 3.7-3.8, 3.11-3.12 | 4 | 5 | 6 | B | C.1 | D.1-D.5 | E | F | |||
| Examiner | S | 1 | 2 | 3.1-3.12 | 4.3-4.4 | 5.1, 5.7-5.9, 5.13-5.17 | 6.2-6.3, 6.5-6.6 | B | C.1 | D.3-D.5 | F | ||
| Board of Examiners | S | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5.1, 5.4-5.17 | 6.3-6.5 | B | C | D | E | F | |
| Board of Studies | S | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5.1, 5.4-5.16 | C.1 | D.1-D.3 | F | |||||
| Quality Assurance Officer | S | 1.3 | 2 | 3.1, 3.7 | (5) | C.1 | D.1, D.3 | F | |||||
| Secretary to the BoEx | S | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5.1, 5.4-5.17 | 6.3-6.5 | B | C | D | E | F | ||
| Faculty Student Council | S | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5.1-5.12 | D.1-D.3 | F | ||||||
| Central Student Council | S | 1 | 3.1-3.7, 3.11 | 5.1-5.12 | D.1-D.4 | E | F | ||||||
| Exam logistics | S | 1 | 3.1-3.4, 3.7, 3.11 | 4.3 | 5.1-5.5-5.9, 5.13-5.17 | 6.2, 6.5 | D.3-D.4 | E | F | ||||
| Study Programme Administration | S | 1 | 3.1-3.3, 3.5, 3.7, 3.12-3.13 | 4.3 | 5.1, 5.5-5.9, 5.13, 5.17 | 6.3-6.5 | E | F | |||||
| Functional Application Administrators | S | 1 | 3.1, 3.3-3.9, 3.11 | 5.1, 5.5, 5.17 | D.3-D.4 | F | |||||||
| Legal services | S | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | B | D.1-D.2, D.5 | E | F | ||||
| Trainers (educational) | S | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | B | C.1 | (D) | E | F | |
| Human Resources | S | 1 | 5 | 6 | F | ||||||||
| ESA policy officers | S | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | B | C | (D) | E | F | |
| Digital Excellence for Education | S | 1 | 5.17 | F | |||||||||
Table 1. Reading guide
Scope
This TU Delft framework provides all people involved with assessments in TU Delft BSc and MSc courses with a vision on assessment, and it defines the TU Delft agreements and conditions concerning these assessments. Faculties will make sure their assessment policy and programme assessment plans will be aligned with this ‘TU Delft Assessment Framework’ and the resulting conditions that are summarized below per assessment building block (and chronologically in A.1). Interfaculty programmes, programmes that are joint degrees with other universities, and programmes that face specific national requirements can encounter conflicting policies. The same holds for service courses and free electives. In these cases, programmes (and courses) make an informed decision on what policy to follow.
Conditions for good quality assessment per building block
Below, the conditions that are necessary to ensure good quality assessment are listed per building block. The conditions are numbered in the order in which they appear in chapter 1-6. Symbols below the condition number indicate whether the responsibility is central (
), at faculty level (
), or both (
). Click on a condition to go to the part of the framework that discusses this condition.
|
| TU Delft, the faculties, the programme directors, and the examiners consciously consider the assessment values and quality requirements for assessments in their decisions about assessment. |
| condition 2: | TU Delft, the faculties and the programme directors ensure that all assessment building blocks are of good quality and consistent with each other. The quality of these building blocks is systematically assessed and improved at least once every six years (see quality assurance plan). |
|
| TU Delft ensures that the central quality assurance plan and the TU Delft assessment framework are aligned. |
| Condition 9: | The TU Delft ensures that the assessment framework meets and operationalises the requirements of the institutional audit. |
| condition 11: | TU Delft and the faculties ensure that the assessments follow the TU Delft assessment agreements, listed in chapter 3. |
|
| The faculties ensure that their quality assurance handbook and their assessment policy comply with each other (including the evaluation frequency), and that both documents comply with the TU Delft framework. |
| condition 10: | The faculties ensure in the faculty’s assessment policy that their programmes live up to standard 3 (assessment) and 4 (achievement of the programme's final attainment levels) of the assessment framework of the NVAO. |
|
| The directors of education ensure that their faculty has an up-to-date assessment policy which is in line with the TU Delft assessment framework and that operationalises the topics listed in 4.1. |
| condition 13: | The programme directors ensure that their programme has an up-to-date programme assessment plan that is in line with their faculties’ assessment policy, and that operationalises the topics listed in 4.2. |
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| The programme directors ensure that their graduation projects have an up-to-date graduation manual that is in line with the programme assessment plan and with regulations. The manual contains the topics listed in 4.4. |
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| The boards of examiners secure that graduates meet the final attainment levels of the programme by executing their legal tasks, listed in 5.9. |
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| The course examiners ensure that their course has an up-to-date course assessment plan that shows how the learning objectives are assessed formatively and summatively. The course assessment plans are in line with the applicable programme assessment plan and faculty assessment policy, and operationalise at least the topics listed in 4.3. |
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| TU Delft ensures that educational and assessment quality are explicitly mentioned in both the HR recruitment and professional development policy. |
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| TU Delft ensures that the assessment training offer of Teaching and Learning Services (LS) is integrated in the HR training offer. |
|
| TU Delft offers training opportunities on assessment to staff. |
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| The boards of examiners ensure that all appointed examiners have a UTQ qualification and that other assessors work under the responsibility of an examiner. |
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| The boards of examiners determine prerequisites on who may carry out key assessment tasks. |
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| The boards of examiners have regulations on the composition of the graduation committee to ensure assessment quality of graduation projects. |
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| TU Delft ensures that the HR system keeps track of at least the relevant assessment qualification of staff, listed in 6.5. |
| condition 26: | TU Delft and the faculties ensure that new employees receive the required information and training in order to carry out their assessment tasks. |
|
| TU Delft and the faculties make relevant assessment information available for stakeholders. |
| condition 28: | Assessment experts within TLS and the faculties offer support and advice on assessment. |
| condition 16: | TU Delft, the faculties and the boards of examiners ensure that the tasks and responsibilities of the different stakeholders with respect to assessment are clear. |
| condition 18: | TU Delft and the faculties support the programmes, and the courses in the process and execution of assessments. |
| condition 5: | The TU Delft ensures that the available assessment tools support the goals of digital assessment tools (see ‘Goal of digital assessment tools’ in 1.4). |
| condition 6: | The TU Delft and the faculties ensure that the owners of the assessment documents mentioned in Appendix B keep these up-to-date and congruent (consistent with each other). |
| condition 7: | The TU Delft and the faculties ensure that students, teaching staff and other stakeholders are informed on their rights and obligations and in changes thereof (see Table 5). |
| condition 8: | The TU Delft and the faculties ensure that the assessments comply with the legal framework as described in Appendix B of this framework. |
Revisions of the assessment framework
Finally, since this is the first time the assessment framework has been published in this form, the Assessment Framework 2023-2028 will be revised a year after its publication based on feedback from stakeholders and changes in underlying documents. Therefore, feedback is more than welcome and can be sent to assessment-taskforce-esa@tudelft.nl.
Apart from yearly corrections and minor updates based on changes in the legal framework and newly developed or adapted TU Delft policies, a more thorough revision of the assessment framework will take place at least every six years.