Presenting your work and value-adding

These are only recommendations, but they would establish a better way of getting the job done. We need a best practice standard to aim for.

1. Consistent systems

A minimal number of procedures will enable us to produce better assessment materials more quickly. We can then re-use templates. We can also improve the system and revise the templates, rather than starting from scratch each time.

2. What it might look like

Collate all instruments and mapping for your course into a single document and give it a title. The page layout should be consistent, as should also the font and font size. The idea is to have it all together. Obviously, however, you'll need to clearly differentiate the materials given to students from those given only to staff.

The soft copy will be more useful because we can easily share a single standard copy through thewebsite. However, you'll probably want to make a hard copy for yourself.

It would be ideal for each tool to fit on one page, but it doesn't always happen.

3. Simplify version control.

You should collate all instruments for your course into a single document and give it a title. That will make it easier to identify the current version. When you revise it, just give it a new edition number or date. Put the version number (or date) in the footer so that it shows on each page, because you'll probably use most of it as separate pages.

4. It's better to share than to re-invent the wheel.

We should seek to have only one set of assessment instruments for each course. By sharing intellectual property, we can save each other inventing the wheel all over again. In some cases, we need more than one set, for example, to cope with very different contexts or unit selections. But even then, we should minimize double work.

5. Add value

These tools can be valuable, and you should consider getting more value for our effort. For endorsed packages, you should consider who else you should let use them and under what conditions. (E.g. kindred organizations, etc.)

If we get them right, it could make sense to license them on the open market for a fee. As somebody pointed out, there is so much work in some of these things that four-figure fees are good value to the consumer. I'm assuming that we have more time than cash to put into assessment materials. Other people will have more cash than time.