Introduction

There are various assessment methods that can be used by practitioners in higher education. For the purpose of this chapter, I am going to concentrate on the continuous professional development initiatives regarding the use of multiple-choice questions (MCQs) that have been offered to University of South Africa (Unisa) lecturers by the Directorate: Curriculum and Learning Development (DCLD). This chapter intends to emphasise the fact that MCQs can be useful as an assessment method if effectively and clearly constructed. In addition, MCQs can be useful when assessors follow good assessment principles and the conventions governing the construction of good MCQs, and when assessors strike a balance (ie assess at different cognitive levels).

The demand for academic staff training is ongoing and, in South Africa's higher education institutions (HEIs), has increased over the past few years. Academics are constantly looking for ways to make teaching more effective; in most cases, support for academic staff consists of a number of workshops. The typical staff development workshop can be described as ‘pedagogical consciousness-raising [which] may be irreversible and lead to further changes in the thinking and behaviour of the faculty; and consequently, to improvements in teaching and learning’ (Gilbert 2000:7). However, in the daily work of a typical academic, ‘raising consciousness’ around important issues is not enough. In the DCLD, we have been studying how to increase the effectiveness of our staff support initiatives with a view to transforming our practice. Our view of how staff transform their practice in learning organisations has led us to adopt a different approach (Hargreaves 2002; Gilbert 2000).

Assessment for students is crucial in the learning environment. In most cases, students are interested in knowing how well they did in an assignment, an examination and/or any other type of assessment. According to Heese (1999), assessment practice has a firm base in theory and research, particularly in the fields of industrial psychology and education. The principles that should govern appropriate assessment practice are extensively documented. There are a number of resources and research articles available on the topic of assessment. Higher education and other learning institution practitioners should ensure that the assessment methods and procedures applied in the learning environments are appropriate and defensible in terms of internationally recognised principles of good assessment.