what does coursework assessment mean

Course Assessment

Course-level assessment is a process of systematically examining and refining the fit between the course activities and what students should know at the end of the course.

Conducting a course-level assessment involves considering whether all aspects of the course align with each other and whether they guide students to achieve the desired learning outcomes.

“Assessment” refers to a variety of processes for gathering, analyzing, and using information about student learning to support instructional decision-making, with the goal of improving student learning. Most instructors already engage in assessment processes all the time, ranging from informal (“hmm, there are many confused faces right now- I should stop for questions”) to formal (“nearly half the class got this quiz question wrong- I should revisit this concept”).

When approached in a formalized way, course-level assessment is a process of systematically examining and refining the fit between the course activities and what students should know at the end of the course. Conducting a course-level assessment involves considering whether all aspects of the course align with each other and whether they guide students to achieve the desired learning outcomes . Course-level assessment can be a practical process embedded within course design and teaching, that provides substantial benefits to instructors and students.

Over time, as the process is followed iteratively over several semesters, it can help instructors find a variety of pathways to designing more equitable courses in which more learners develop greater expertise in the skills and knowledge of greatest importance to the discipline or topic of the course.

Differentiating Grading from Assessment

“Assessment” is sometimes used colloquially to mean “grading,” but there are distinctions between the two. Grading is a process of evaluating individual student learning for the purposes of characterizing that student’s level of success at a particular task (or the entire course). The grade of an assignment may provide feedback to students on which concepts or skills they have mastered, which can guide them to revise their study approach, but may not be used by the instructor to decide how subsequent class sessions will be spent. Similarly, a student’s grade in a course might convey to other instructors in the curriculum or prospective employers the level of mastery that the student has demonstrated during that semester, but need not suggest changes to the design of the course as a whole for future iterations.

In contrast to grading, assessment practices focus on determining how many students achieved which learning course outcomes, and to what level of mastery, for the purpose of helping the instructor revise subsequent lessons or the course as a whole for subsequent terms. Since final course grades may include participation points, and aggregate student mastery of all course learning objectives into a single measure, they rarely give clarity on what elements of the course have been most or least successful in achieving the instructor’s goals. Differentiating assessment from grading allows instructors to plot a clear course forward toward making the changes that will have the greatest impact in the areas they define as being most important, based on the results of the assessment.

Course learning outcomes are measurable statements that describe what students should be able to do by the end of a course . Let’s parse this statement into its three component parts: student-centered, measurable, and course-level.

Student-Centered

First, learning outcomes should focus on what students will be able to do, not what the course will do. For example:

• “Introduces the fundamental ideas of computing and the principles of programming” says what a course is intended to accomplish. This is perfectly appropriate for a course description but is not a learning outcome.
• A related student learning outcome might read, “ Explain the fundamental ideas of computing and identify the principles of programming.”

Second, learning outcomes are measurable , which means that you can observe the student performing the skill or task and determine the degree to which they have done so. This does not need to be measured in quantitative terms—student learning can be observed in the characteristics of presentations, essays, projects, and many other student products created in a course (discussed more in the section on rubrics below).

To be measurable, learning outcomes should not include words like understand , learn , and appreciate , because these qualities occur within the student’s mind and are not observable. Rather, ask yourself, “What would a student be doing if they understand, have learned, or appreciate?” For example:

• “Learners should understand US political ideologies regarding social and environmental issues,” is not observable.
• “Learners should be able to compare and contrast U.S. political ideologies regarding social and environmental issues,” is observable.

Course-Level

Finally, learning outcomes for course-level assessment focus on the knowledge and skills that learners will take away from a course as a whole. Though the final project, essay, or other assessment that will be used to measure student learning may match the outcome well, the learning outcome should articulate the overarching takeaway from the course, rather than describing the assignment. For example:

• “Identify learning principles and theories in real-world situations” is a learning outcome that describes skills learners will use beyond the course.
• “Develop a case study in which you document a learner in a real-world setting” describes a course assignment aligned with that outcome but is not a learning outcome itself.

Identify and Prioritize Your Higher-Order End Goals

Course-level learning outcomes articulate the big-picture takeaways of the course, providing context and purpose for day-to-day learning. To keep the workload of course assessment manageable, focus on no more than 5-10 learning outcomes per course (McCourt, 2007). This limit is helpful because each of these course-level learning objectives will be carefully assessed at the end of the term and used to guide iterative revision of the course in future semesters.

This is not meant to suggest that students will only learn 5-10 skills or concepts during the term. Multiple shorter-term and lower-level learning objectives are very helpful to guide student learning at the unit, week, or even class session scale (Felder & Brent, 2016). These shorter-term objectives build toward or serve as components of the course-level objectives.

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) is a helpful tool for deciding which of your objectives are course-level, which may be unit-to class-level objectives, and how they fit together. This taxonomy organizes action verbs by complexity of thinking, resulting in the following categories:

Download a list of sample learning outcomes from a variety of disciplines .

Typically, objectives at the higher end of the spectrum (“analyzing,” “evaluating,” or “creating”) are ideal course-level learning outcomes, while those at the lower end of the spectrum (“remembering,” “understanding,” or “applying”) are component parts and day, week, or unit-level outcomes. Lower-level outcomes that do not contribute substantially to students’ ability to achieve the higher-level objectives may fit better in a different course in the curriculum.

Consider Involving Your Learners

Depending on the course and the flexibility of the course structure and/or progression, some educators spend the first day of the course working with learners to craft or edit learning outcomes together. This practice of giving learners an informed voice may lead to increased motivation and ownership of learning.

Alignment, where all components work together to bolster specific student learning outcomes, occurs at multiple levels. At the course level, assignments or activities within the course are aligned with the daily or unit-level learning outcomes, which in turn are aligned with the course-level objectives. At the next level, the learning outcomes of each course in a curriculum contribute directly and strategically to programmatic learning outcomes.

Alignment Within the Course

Since learning outcomes are statements about key learning takeaways, they can be used to focus the assignments, activities, and content of the course (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). Biggs & Tang (2011) note that, “In a constructively aligned system, all components… support each other, so the learner is enveloped within a supportive learning system.”

For example, for the learning outcome, “learners should be able to collaborate effectively on a team to create a marketing campaign for a product,” the course should: (1) intentionally teach learners effective ways to collaborate on a team and how to create a marketing campaign; (2) include activities that allow learners to practice and progress in their skillsets for collaboration and creation of marketing campaigns; and (3) have assessments that provide feedback to the learners on the extent that they are meeting these learning outcomes.

Alignment With Program

When developing your course learning outcomes, consider how the course contributes to your program’s mission/goals (especially if such decisions have not already been made at the programmatic level). If course learning outcomes are set at the programmatic level, familiarize yourself with possible program sequences to understand the knowledge and skills learners are bringing into your course and the level and type of mastery they may need for future courses and experiences. Explicitly sharing your understanding of this alignment with learners may help motivate them and provide more context, significance, and/or impact for their learning (Cuevas, Matveevm, & Miller, 2010).

If relevant, you will also want to ensure that a course with NUpath attributes addresses the associated outcomes . Similarly, for undergraduate or graduate courses that meet requirements set by external evaluators specific to the discipline or field, reviewing and assessing these outcomes is often a requirement for continuing accreditation.

See our program-level assessment guide for more information.

Transparency

Sharing course learning outcomes with learners makes the benchmarks for learning explicit and helps learners make connections across different elements within the course (Cuevas & Mativeev, 2010). Consider including course learning outcomes in your syllabus , so learners know what is expected of them by the end of a course and can refer to the outcomes as the term progresses. When educators refer to learning outcomes during the course before introducing new concepts or assignments, learners receive the message that the outcomes are important and are more likely to see the connections between the outcomes and course activities.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment practices are brief, often low-stakes (minimal grade value) assignments administered during the semester to give the instructor insight into student progress toward one or more course-level learning objectives (or the day-to unit-level objectives that stair-step toward the course objectives). Common formative assessment techniques include classroom discussions , just-in-time quizzes or polls , concept maps , and informal writing techniques like minute papers or “muddiest points,” among many others (Angelo & Cross, 1993).

Refining Alignment During the Semester

While it requires a bit of flexibility built into the syllabus, student-centered courses often use the results of formative assessments in real time to revise upcoming learning activities. If students are struggling with a particular outcome, extra time might be devoted to related practice. Alternatively, if students demonstrate accomplishment of a particular outcome early in the related unit, the instructor might choose to skip activities planned to teach that outcome and jump ahead to activities related to an outcome that builds upon the first one.

Supporting Student Motivation and Engagement

Formative assessment and subsequent refinements to alignment that support student learning can be transformative for student motivation and engagement in the course, with the greatest benefits likely for novices and students worried about their ability to successfully accomplish the course outcomes, such as those impacted by stereotype threat (Steele, 2010). Take the example below, in which an instructor who sees that students are struggling decides to dedicate more time and learning activities to that outcome. If that instructor were to instead move on to instruction and activities that built upon the prior learning objective, students who did not reach the prior objective would become increasingly lost, likely recognize that their efforts at learning the new content or skill were not helping them succeed, and potentially disengage from the course as a whole.

Artifacts for Summative Assessment

To determine the degree to which students have accomplished the course learning outcomes, instructors often assign some form of project , essay, presentation, portfolio, renewable assignment , or other cumulative final. The final product of these activities could serve as the “artifact” that is assessed. In this context, alignment is particularly critical—if this assignment does not adequately guide students to demonstrate their achievement of the learning outcomes, the instructor will not have concrete information to guide course design for future semesters. To keep assessment manageable, aim to design a single final assignment that create the space for students to demonstrate their performance on multiple (if not all) course learning outcomes.

Since not all courses are designed with a final assignment that allows students to demonstrate their highest level of achievement of all course learning outcomes, the assessment processes could use the course assignment that represents the highest level of achievement that students had an opportunity to demonstrate during the term. However, some learning objectives that do not come into play during the final may be better categorized as unit-level, rather than course-level, objectives.

Direct vs. Indirect Measures of Student Learning

Some instructors also use surveys, interviews, or other methods that ask learners whether and how they believe they have achieved the learning outcomes. This type of “indirect evidence” can provide valuable information about how learners understand their progress but does not directly measure students’ learning. In fact, novices commonly have difficulty accurately evaluating their own learning (Ambrose et al., 2010). For this reason, indirect evidence of student learning (on its own) is not considered sufficient for summative assessment.

Together, direct and indirect evidence of student learning can help an instructor determine whether to bolster student practice in certain areas or whether to simply focus on increasing transparency about when students are working toward which learning outcome.

Creating and Assessing Student Work with Analytic Rubrics

One tool for assessing student work is analytic rubrics (shown below) which are matrices of characteristics and descriptions of what it might look like for student products to demonstrate these characteristics at different levels of mastery. Analytic rubrics are commonly recommended for assessment purposes, since they provide more detailed feedback to guide course design in more meaningful ways than holistic rubrics. Pre-existing analytic rubrics such as the AAC&U VALUE Rubrics can be tailored to fit your course or program, or you can develop an outcome-specific rubric yourself (Moskal, 2000 is a useful reference, or contact CATLR for a one-on-one consultation). The process of refining a rubric often involves multiple iterations of applying the rubric to student work and identifying the ways in which it captures or does not capture the characteristics representing the outcome.

Summative assessment results can inform changes to any of the course components for subsequent terms. If students have underperformed on a particular course learning objective, the instructor might choose to revise the related assignments or provide additional practice opportunities related to that objective, and formative assessments might be revised or implemented to test whether those new learning activities are producing better results. If the final assessment does not provide sufficient information about student performance on a certain outcome, the instructor might revise the assessment guidelines or even implement a different assessment that is more aligned to the outcome. Finally, if an instructor notices during the assessment process that an important outcome has not been articulated, or would be more clearly stated a different way, that instructor might revise the objectives themselves.

For assistance at any stage of the course assessment cycle, contact CATLR for a one-on-one or group consultation.

Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010).  How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching . San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001).  A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives . New York, NY: Longman.

Bembenutty, H. (2011). Self-regulation of learning in postsecondary education.  New Directions for Teaching and Learning ,  126 , 3-8. doi: 10.1002/tl.439

Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2011).  Teaching for Quality Learning at University . Maidenhead, England: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.

Cauley, K. M., & McMillan, J. H. (2010). Formative assessment techniques to support student motivation and achievement.  The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas ,  83 (1), 1-6. doi: 10.1080/00098650903267784

Cuevas, N. M., Matveev, A. G., & Miller, K. O. (2010). Mapping general education outcomes in the major: Intentionality and transparency.  Peer Review ,  12 (1), 10-15.

Felder, R. M., & Brent, R. (2016).  Teaching and learning STEM: A practical guide . San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview.  Theory into practice ,  41 (4), 212-218. doi:  10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2

McCourt, Millis, B. J., (2007).  Writing and Assessing Course-Level Student Learning Outcomes . Office of Planning and Assessment at the Texas Tech University.

Moskal, B. M. (2000). Scoring rubrics: What, when and how?  Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation ,  7 (3).

Setting Learning Outcomes . (2012). Center for Teaching Excellence at Cornell University. Retrieved from  https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/designing-your-course/setting-learning-outcomes .

Steele, C. M. (2010).  Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do . New York, NY: WW Norton & Company, Inc.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005).  Understanding by Design (Expanded) . Alexandria, US: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD).

We have sent you an email with a 6 digit code to:

Didn't receive an email? Check your spam folder and mark the email as not spam!. If you Skip this step, you won't be able to receive order-related updates via email.

What is Coursework? An Ultimate Guide to Coursework Writing

Coursework is the most significant part of academic writing that requires so much time and effort. You should consider the guidance of your teachers and your seniors who have similar experiences in writing a coursework. This makes the process of working faster and more effective, which leads to the best outcomes. This guide will help you to understand what coursework is and how to write coursework effectively. 

What is Coursework?

Coursework consists of all basic assignments given to students to evaluate their level of understanding. It includes following types of assignments, such as essay writing , research papers, discussion boards and written reports. To get excellent grades and grade point averages (GPA), students must understand the basic concepts of their courses.

Coursework is difficult to define, even though it is usually important to complete a specific program. This kind of assignment can be completed in a wide range of formats.  If you require any coursework help, you may contact Nerdpapers . 

Importance of Coursework

Coursework is the most common type of assignment that teachers give students to understand their level of learning on a specific topic or subject. Moreover, it shows how well a student understands and uses the topic in various contexts. Through coursework writing, students may improve their research abilities, increase their understanding of a subject, develop their analytical skills, and apply the knowledge they have discovered to use independently. Furthermore, students learn to summarize the topic with key arguments and then draw conclusions from it. 

Types of Coursework

Do you need a "do my coursework writing services"? But do you know that coursework has different types? Five different types of coursework are given to students to write:

Analytical Coursework

Analytical Coursework presents a thesis statement or claim and demonstrates how to study different things. It usually focuses on the literary style of the text rather than the synopsis.

Supportive Commentary

Supportive Commentary helps students to create a single piece of media writing. Coursework should be written in an experimental mode, such as written, spoken, or multimodal. Students must also include a supporting statement that contains all the information and aspects. 

Journal Coursework

Writing journals for coursework is regarded as an act that promotes casual writing as a regular activity. This can take many different forms and is useful for multiple purposes. It can be both creative and personal. In order to organize their thoughts, compose their ideas, and respond to them, students are always expected to keep journals as part of their coursework.

Analytical Study

Analytical study is the process of sharing an analysis of the chosen work and how it relates to the relevant material. It also shows how well the writer understands the entire process of writing. Students should use proper vocabulary and must maintain word consistency. Also, understand the structure and format of writing.  

Commentary and Creative Writing

In commentary and creative writing coursework, students are asked to generate creative content that reflects the tone or style of the assessed text. It also helps to share comments to support the knowledge. Additionally, the major purpose of creative writing and commentary is to demonstrate knowledge, test skills, and engage the target audience through various languages.

Coursework Writing Tips

There are some key points that you should keep in mind while writing coursework. 

It is the worst possible scenario for any kind of academic writing assignment. Today, the internet has tons of relevant information, and professors become rigorous in the context of plagiarism. Your own words should be used in all writing! Use the advised citation style and make references list if you choose to include quotations from the sources. Claim that it is your own project and sign the declaration.

Keep in mind the precise guidelines for the coursework's length. Specify whether the references, appendices, and footnotes are counted as part of the word count.

Browse the possible topics. Try to pick a relevant coursework topic that is similar to the subject of the upcoming exam if one will be held on it. 

Get Help from Tutor

Never ignore your teacher's advice; ask for their guidance on your topic. Also, to learn more, ask questions, but remember they may only read the first draft once and give general suggestions.

Perfect Coursework Writing Structure

The precision required for coursework writing depends not only on the writing process but also on the design. Even if you produce a stunning and thoroughly researched paper for the professor, poor design will still result in bad grades. We have chosen the most significant components to build a flawless coursework structure for you after reviewing many coursework standards. The structure consists of the following main components:

Introduction or Opening

The first step is to write the coursework introduction after choosing a topic. This introduction section needs to be extraordinary to catch the reader's attention. Make sure to include all essential details, and keep it brief or precise. 

Include any background data about the topic you have chosen. Write down your goals as well. This section should contain your thesis statement. Also, write the introduction in such a way that it serves as the reader's guide.

Main Body 

Your hard work and dedication will be reflected in this section. In the body section, you should add every minute detail you discovered on your research journey. Additionally, this section will be written in the past tense with an informative tone. 

Readers may find research findings boring because they are just stats and figures. Therefore, this section should include appealing tables, graphs, infographics and charts to make it interesting. Mention each statistic as it is; do not change any findings. 

Summarize your whole coursework in this section. The conclusion needs to be short while covering all the details. You might mention the essential takeaways from the coursework.

How to Write a Coursework: Step-by-Step Guide

It's time to start researching and writing once you've chosen a topic that excites you. 

Research is the most crucial part of any writing project. A lot of effort and time is required, but it is worthwhile because it serves as the core of your work and helps establish and defend your point of view.  You can find the necessary information from many primary and secondary sources. Always double-check the information you get online because not all of it is reliable, and some of it can be out of date. Make notes on each source you consult while researching, including the definition, quotation, or information you discovered. Make a table with citations or links to web sources. It is also very helpful to utilize such a table while writing the bibliography section.

Planning 

At the planning phase, it is advised to make a rough outline of your coursework, decide which information you will add, and what points you should add in each section. Making a plan first and then sticking to it is very helpful.  For example, create a table and include all steps of your work with the dates when you want to work on them. This is a fantastic method for time management and a great way to quit delaying things so you can finish them before the deadline.

Drafting 

It could be challenging to write the initial draft of a lengthy article. However, there isn't much you can do about it. In this scenario, the sole piece of guidance that is appropriate is to start writing. Once you start putting together your coursework, you'll observe that there aren't a lot of differences between your paper and other typical written assignments. The section for which you have the most information should come first. These academic papers are never written according to the structure's order. The opening portion of your paper is where you can begin writing because it is more general than the rest.  You can pick out some interesting, pertinent coursework examples or reports to discuss in your writing so your reader will better understand the issue you are gradually focused on. You can go on to terms and situations that are more precise after acquiring the background information.

The last step is to edit and polish your document. While proofreading, it's crucial to focus on consistency problems, stylistic errors, and grammar and punctuation errors.

Many tools, including Grammarly , are available to help you with grammar. You should use these tools because you might miss some errors. No software can help you fix your writing style and logical structure mistakes. However, you can turn to a team of expert writers and editors for a high-quality editing service and a properly polished document.

Verify the word count and formatting specifications provided by your educational institution. Before submitting your work for review to your professor, you should also allow time for the editing phase, so plan accordingly.

Formative vs Summative Coursework Assessments

Formative assessment assesses students' understanding of a subject by offering them practice in essay creation and structure. It assists students in evaluating their strengths and weaknesses and focuses on areas that require improvement. Moreover, formative assessments help instructors in identifying students' areas of difficulty and taking prompt action to resolve issues

Summative assignments, on the other hand, evaluate students' knowledge at the end of the semester. Summative assessment includes mid-term exams and final-year project. When completing courses, it is vital to understand the type of review you are submitting to. If you understand the coursework meaning and finish your assignments on time, you might obtain an A+.

Get Coursework Help from Experts

If you want to write your coursework successfully, follow all the steps mentioned above. If you still have difficulty writing coursework, you can get our coursework writing services with one click. We have a group of experienced writers who can offer you timely, cost-effective coursework help online. 

Table of Contents

Persuasive essay topics – how to choose one for you, how to write a persuasive essay- expert tips.

Center for Teaching

Student assessment in teaching and learning.

Much scholarship has focused on the importance of student assessment in teaching and learning in higher education. Student assessment is a critical aspect of the teaching and learning process. Whether teaching at the undergraduate or graduate level, it is important for instructors to strategically evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching by measuring the extent to which students in the classroom are learning the course material.

This teaching guide addresses the following: 1) defines student assessment and why it is important, 2) identifies the forms and purposes of student assessment in the teaching and learning process, 3) discusses methods in student assessment, and 4) makes an important distinction between assessment and grading., what is student assessment and why is it important.

In their handbook for course-based review and assessment, Martha L. A. Stassen et al. define assessment as “the systematic collection and analysis of information to improve student learning.” (Stassen et al., 2001, pg. 5) This definition captures the essential task of student assessment in the teaching and learning process. Student assessment enables instructors to measure the effectiveness of their teaching by linking student performance to specific learning objectives. As a result, teachers are able to institutionalize effective teaching choices and revise ineffective ones in their pedagogy.

The measurement of student learning through assessment is important because it provides useful feedback to both instructors and students about the extent to which students are successfully meeting course learning objectives. In their book Understanding by Design , Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe offer a framework for classroom instruction—what they call “Backward Design”—that emphasizes the critical role of assessment. For Wiggens and McTighe, assessment enables instructors to determine the metrics of measurement for student understanding of and proficiency in course learning objectives. They argue that assessment provides the evidence needed to document and validate that meaningful learning has occurred in the classroom. Assessment is so vital in their pedagogical design that their approach “encourages teachers and curriculum planners to first ‘think like an assessor’ before designing specific units and lessons, and thus to consider up front how they will determine if students have attained the desired understandings.” (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005, pg. 18)

For more on Wiggins and McTighe’s “Backward Design” model, see our Understanding by Design teaching guide.

Student assessment also buttresses critical reflective teaching. Stephen Brookfield, in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, contends that critical reflection on one’s teaching is an essential part of developing as an educator and enhancing the learning experience of students. Critical reflection on one’s teaching has a multitude of benefits for instructors, including the development of rationale for teaching practices. According to Brookfield, “A critically reflective teacher is much better placed to communicate to colleagues and students (as well as to herself) the rationale behind her practice. She works from a position of informed commitment.” (Brookfield, 1995, pg. 17) Student assessment, then, not only enables teachers to measure the effectiveness of their teaching, but is also useful in developing the rationale for pedagogical choices in the classroom.

Forms and Purposes of Student Assessment

There are generally two forms of student assessment that are most frequently discussed in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The first, summative assessment , is assessment that is implemented at the end of the course of study. Its primary purpose is to produce a measure that “sums up” student learning. Summative assessment is comprehensive in nature and is fundamentally concerned with learning outcomes. While summative assessment is often useful to provide information about patterns of student achievement, it does so without providing the opportunity for students to reflect on and demonstrate growth in identified areas for improvement and does not provide an avenue for the instructor to modify teaching strategy during the teaching and learning process. (Maki, 2002) Examples of summative assessment include comprehensive final exams or papers.

The second form, formative assessment , involves the evaluation of student learning over the course of time. Its fundamental purpose is to estimate students’ level of achievement in order to enhance student learning during the learning process. By interpreting students’ performance through formative assessment and sharing the results with them, instructors help students to “understand their strengths and weaknesses and to reflect on how they need to improve over the course of their remaining studies.” (Maki, 2002, pg. 11) Pat Hutchings refers to this form of assessment as assessment behind outcomes. She states, “the promise of assessment—mandated or otherwise—is improved student learning, and improvement requires attention not only to final results but also to how results occur. Assessment behind outcomes means looking more carefully at the process and conditions that lead to the learning we care about…” (Hutchings, 1992, pg. 6, original emphasis). Formative assessment includes course work—where students receive feedback that identifies strengths, weaknesses, and other things to keep in mind for future assignments—discussions between instructors and students, and end-of-unit examinations that provide an opportunity for students to identify important areas for necessary growth and development for themselves. (Brown and Knight, 1994)

It is important to recognize that both summative and formative assessment indicate the purpose of assessment, not the method . Different methods of assessment (discussed in the next section) can either be summative or formative in orientation depending on how the instructor implements them. Sally Brown and Peter Knight in their book, Assessing Learners in Higher Education, caution against a conflation of the purposes of assessment its method. “Often the mistake is made of assuming that it is the method which is summative or formative, and not the purpose. This, we suggest, is a serious mistake because it turns the assessor’s attention away from the crucial issue of feedback.” (Brown and Knight, 1994, pg. 17) If an instructor believes that a particular method is formative, he or she may fall into the trap of using the method without taking the requisite time to review the implications of the feedback with students. In such cases, the method in question effectively functions as a form of summative assessment despite the instructor’s intentions. (Brown and Knight, 1994) Indeed, feedback and discussion is the critical factor that distinguishes between formative and summative assessment.

Methods in Student Assessment

Below are a few common methods of assessment identified by Brown and Knight that can be implemented in the classroom. [1] It should be noted that these methods work best when learning objectives have been identified, shared, and clearly articulated to students.

Self-Assessment

The goal of implementing self-assessment in a course is to enable students to develop their own judgement. In self-assessment students are expected to assess both process and product of their learning. While the assessment of the product is often the task of the instructor, implementing student assessment in the classroom encourages students to evaluate their own work as well as the process that led them to the final outcome. Moreover, self-assessment facilitates a sense of ownership of one’s learning and can lead to greater investment by the student. It enables students to develop transferable skills in other areas of learning that involve group projects and teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as leadership roles in the teaching and learning process.

Things to Keep in Mind about Self-Assessment

• Self-assessment is different from self-grading. According to Brown and Knight, “Self-assessment involves the use of evaluative processes in which judgement is involved, where self-grading is the marking of one’s own work against a set of criteria and potential outcomes provided by a third person, usually the [instructor].” (Pg. 52)
• Students may initially resist attempts to involve them in the assessment process. This is usually due to insecurities or lack of confidence in their ability to objectively evaluate their own work. Brown and Knight note, however, that when students are asked to evaluate their work, frequently student-determined outcomes are very similar to those of instructors, particularly when the criteria and expectations have been made explicit in advance.
• Methods of self-assessment vary widely and can be as eclectic as the instructor. Common forms of self-assessment include the portfolio, reflection logs, instructor-student interviews, learner diaries and dialog journals, and the like.

Peer Assessment

Peer assessment is a type of collaborative learning technique where students evaluate the work of their peers and have their own evaluated by peers. This dimension of assessment is significantly grounded in theoretical approaches to active learning and adult learning . Like self-assessment, peer assessment gives learners ownership of learning and focuses on the process of learning as students are able to “share with one another the experiences that they have undertaken.” (Brown and Knight, 1994, pg. 52)

Things to Keep in Mind about Peer Assessment

• Students can use peer assessment as a tactic of antagonism or conflict with other students by giving unmerited low evaluations. Conversely, students can also provide overly favorable evaluations of their friends.
• Students can occasionally apply unsophisticated judgements to their peers. For example, students who are boisterous and loquacious may receive higher grades than those who are quieter, reserved, and shy.
• Instructors should implement systems of evaluation in order to ensure valid peer assessment is based on evidence and identifiable criteria .  

According to Euan S. Henderson, essays make two important contributions to learning and assessment: the development of skills and the cultivation of a learning style. (Henderson, 1980) Essays are a common form of writing assignment in courses and can be either a summative or formative form of assessment depending on how the instructor utilizes them in the classroom.

Things to Keep in Mind about Essays

• A common challenge of the essay is that students can use them simply to regurgitate rather than analyze and synthesize information to make arguments.
• Instructors commonly assume that students know how to write essays and can encounter disappointment or frustration when they discover that this is not the case for some students. For this reason, it is important for instructors to make their expectations clear and be prepared to assist or expose students to resources that will enhance their writing skills.

Exams and time-constrained, individual assessment

Examinations have traditionally been viewed as a gold standard of assessment in education, particularly in university settings. Like essays they can be summative or formative forms of assessment.

Things to Keep in Mind about Exams

• Exams can make significant demands on students’ factual knowledge and can have the side-effect of encouraging cramming and surface learning. On the other hand, they can also facilitate student demonstration of deep learning if essay questions or topics are appropriately selected. Different formats include in-class tests, open-book, take-home exams and the like.
• In the process of designing an exam, instructors should consider the following questions. What are the learning objectives that the exam seeks to evaluate? Have students been adequately prepared to meet exam expectations? What are the skills and abilities that students need to do well? How will this exam be utilized to enhance the student learning process?

As Brown and Knight assert, utilizing multiple methods of assessment, including more than one assessor, improves the reliability of data. However, a primary challenge to the multiple methods approach is how to weigh the scores produced by multiple methods of assessment. When particular methods produce higher range of marks than others, instructors can potentially misinterpret their assessment of overall student performance. When multiple methods produce different messages about the same student, instructors should be mindful that the methods are likely assessing different forms of achievement. (Brown and Knight, 1994).

For additional methods of assessment not listed here, see “Assessment on the Page” and “Assessment Off the Page” in Assessing Learners in Higher Education .

In addition to the various methods of assessment listed above, classroom assessment techniques also provide a useful way to evaluate student understanding of course material in the teaching and learning process. For more on these, see our Classroom Assessment Techniques teaching guide.

Assessment is More than Grading

Instructors often conflate assessment with grading. This is a mistake. It must be understood that student assessment is more than just grading. Remember that assessment links student performance to specific learning objectives in order to provide useful information to instructors and students about student achievement. Traditional grading on the other hand, according to Stassen et al. does not provide the level of detailed and specific information essential to link student performance with improvement. “Because grades don’t tell you about student performance on individual (or specific) learning goals or outcomes, they provide little information on the overall success of your course in helping students to attain the specific and distinct learning objectives of interest.” (Stassen et al., 2001, pg. 6) Instructors, therefore, must always remember that grading is an aspect of student assessment but does not constitute its totality.

Teaching Guides Related to Student Assessment

Below is a list of other CFT teaching guides that supplement this one. They include:

• Active Learning
• An Introduction to Lecturing
• Beyond the Essay: Making Student Thinking Visible in the Humanities
• Bloom’s Taxonomy
• How People Learn
• Syllabus Construction

References and Additional Resources

This teaching guide draws upon a number of resources listed below. These sources should prove useful for instructors seeking to enhance their pedagogy and effectiveness as teachers.

Angelo, Thomas A., and K. Patricia Cross. Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers . 2 nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. Print.

Brookfield, Stephen D. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995. Print.

Brown, Sally, and Peter Knight. Assessing Learners in Higher Education . 1 edition. London ; Philadelphia: Routledge, 1998. Print.

Cameron, Jeanne et al. “Assessment as Critical Praxis: A Community College Experience.” Teaching Sociology 30.4 (2002): 414–429. JSTOR . Web.

Gibbs, Graham and Claire Simpson. “Conditions under which Assessment Supports Student Learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 1 (2004): 3-31.

Henderson, Euan S. “The Essay in Continuous Assessment.” Studies in Higher Education 5.2 (1980): 197–203. Taylor and Francis+NEJM . Web.

Maki, Peggy L. “Developing an Assessment Plan to Learn about Student Learning.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 28.1 (2002): 8–13. ScienceDirect . Web. The Journal of Academic Librarianship.

Sharkey, Stephen, and William S. Johnson. Assessing Undergraduate Learning in Sociology . ASA Teaching Resource Center, 1992. Print.

Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding By Design . 2nd Expanded edition. Alexandria, VA: Assn. for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. Print.

[1] Brown and Night discuss the first two in their chapter entitled “Dimensions of Assessment.” However, because this chapter begins the second part of the book that outlines assessment methods, I have collapsed the two under the category of methods for the purposes of continuity.

Teaching Guides

• Online Course Development Resources
• Principles & Frameworks
• Pedagogies & Strategies
• Reflecting & Assessing
• Challenges & Opportunities
• Populations & Contexts

Quick Links

• Services for Departments and Schools
• Examples of Online Instructional Modules

Jump to main content

Center for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning

Course Assessment Toolkit

This toolkit provides resources to help instructors create measurable learning outcomes and develop classroom assessments to track student learning.

• Teaching Toolkits
• Course Assessment Toolbox

Course-level assessment is a process of systematically examining and refining the fit between the course activities and what students should know at the end of the course. It involves both formative and summative assessment of student learning. The most effective course assessment is done throughout the semester, provides opportunities for low-stakes, formative assessment, and is based in authentic demonstrations of a students' learning. The key to effective course assessment is establishing course learning outcomes and developing course assessments that will provide evidence of achievement  (Angelo & Cross, 1993).

This toolkit provides help with developing course learning outcomes and thinking through the type of assessment you want to conduct and how to develop effective assessments.

How do I develop course learning outcomes?

Developing course learning outcomes comes down to thinking through the big ideas you want students to learn from your course. It's important to think about the essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions you want students to leave class with and be able to use later. It is also important to think about what knowledge and skills students need in the next course in your program to ensure their continued success in the major.

For a detailed process to develop course learning outcomes download the Developing Course-Level Student Learning Outcomes Workbook.

What kind of assessment should you conduct in class?

There are two types of assessment - formative and summative. Formative assessment is done early and often in a course to track student learning over time. Formative assessments are low-stakes assessments that won't harm a student's grade but will keep them engaged in course content. They help students identify strengths and areas for improvement in their own learning while also providing faculty with information about how students are grasping content, allowing instructors to adjust a course as needed. 

• Read more about formative and summative assessment
• Watch the CETL webinar on implementing low-stakes assessment in large courses

How can I determine if students can apply course concepts?

Authentic assessments can tell you a lot about students' ability to apply course concepts and think critically about the content. Authentic assessment focuses on application of course knowledge to a new situation using complex, real-world situations that require a student to think about application of knowledge and skills in society rather than just in the classroom. This moves instructors away from multiple choice and memorization, will improve learning, and limit academic dishonesty. 

• Read more about Authentic Assessment

How do I develop a course assessment?

To develop an assessment you want to think about how a student will demonstrate their understanding of a course concept or demonstrate their skill. Developing an effective Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT) takes some thought because you want to be sure that the CAT is assessing what you want it to assess.

For a detailed process to develop classroom assessments download the Developing Classroom Assessment Techniques Workbook and the CAT KIT .

The workbook provides a step-by-step process for developing classroom assessments. The CAT KIT details six assessments and discusses how to develop them for your own needs and how to use the data. Examples of assessments are provided.

How do I align my assessments to my learning outcomes?

Dr. Aaron Haberman explores different summative assessment methods and will help you develop or refine a high stakes summative assessment that directly aligns with one or more of your course-level student learning outcomes.

• Creating Summative Assessments that Align to Student Learning Outcomes

Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, p. 7-11

Support for Course Assessment 

If you need support developing course learning outcomes or assessment you can set up a personal consultation with CETL.

Contact UNC

Social media.

• UNC Overview
• Awards & Accolades
• Organizational Chart
• Strategic Plan
• Accreditation
• Student Consumer Information
• Sustainability
• COURSE CATALOG
• GIVE TO UNC
• Open Records Act

Page Last Updated: Today | Contact for this Page: CETL

Privacy Policy | Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity/Title IX Policy & Coordinator

Rethinking educational assessments: the matrimony of exams and coursework

Standardised tests have been cemented in education systems across the globe, but whether or not they are a better assessment of students’ ability compared to coursework still divides opinions.

Proponents of exam assessments argue that despite being stressful, exams are beneficial for many reasons, such as:

• Provides motivation to study;
• Results are a good measure of the student’s work and understanding (and not anyone else’s); and
• They are a fair way of assessing students’ knowledge of a topic and encourage thinking in answering questions that everyone else is also taking.

But the latter may not be entirely true. A  Stanford study says question format can impact how boys and girls score on standardised tests. Researchers found that girls perform better on standardised tests that have more open-ended questions, while boys score higher when the tests include more multiple-choice questions.

Meanwhile, The Hechinger Report notes that assessments, when designed properly, can support, not just measure, student learning, building their skills and granting them the feedback they need.

“Assessments create feedback for teachers and students alike, and the high value of feedback – particularly timely feedback – is well-documented by learning scientists. It’s useful to know you’re doing something wrong right after you do it,” it said.

Exams are important for students, but they must be designed properly to ensure they support student learning. Source: Shutterstock

Conversely, critics of exams say the obsession with test scores comes at the expense of learning – students memorise facts, while some syllabi lack emphasis of knowledge application and does little to develop students’ critical thinking skills.

Meanwhile, teachers have argued that report card grades aren’t the best way to measure a student’s academic achievement , adding that they measure effort more than achievement.

Coursework, on the other hand, assesses a wider range of skills – it can consist of a range of activities such as quizzes, class participation, assignments and presentations. These steady assessments over an academic year suggests there is fair representation of students’ educational attainment while also catering for different learning styles.

Quizzes can be useful as they keep students on their toes and encourages them to study consistently, while giving educators a yardstick as to how well students are faring. Group work, however, can open up a can of worms when lazy students latch on to hard-working peers to pull up their grades, or when work is unevenly distributed among teammates.

It becomes clear that exams and coursework clearly test students’ different ‘muscles’, but do they supplement and support students’ learning outcomes and develop students as a whole?

The shifting tides

Coursework can develop skills such as collaboration and critical thinking among students, which exams cannot. Source: Shutterstock

News reports suggest that some countries are gradually moving away from an exam-oriented education system; these include selected schools in the US and Asian countries.

Last year, Malaysia’s Education Minister, Dr Maszlee Malik, said students from Year One to Three will no longer sit for exams come 2019, enabling the ministry to implement the Classroom-Based Assessment (PBD), in which they can focus on a pupil’s learning development.

Meanwhile, Singapore is cutting down on the number of exams for selected primary and secondary school levels, while Georgia’s school graduate exams will be abolished from 2020. Finland is a country known for not having standardised tests, with the exception of one exam at the end of students’ secondary school year.

Drawing from my experience, I found that a less exam-oriented system greatly benefitted me.

Going through 11 years of the Malaysian national education system was a testament that I did not perform well in an exam-oriented environment. I was often ‘first from the bottom’ in class, which did little to boost my confidence in school.

For university, I set out to select a programme that was less exam-oriented and eventually chose the American Degree Programme (ADP), while many of my schoolmates went with the popular A-Levels before progressing to their degree.

With the ADP, the bulk of student assessments (about 70 percent, depending on your institution) came from assignments, quizzes, class participation, presentations and the like, while the remaining 30 percent was via exams. Under this system, I found myself flourishing for the first time in an academic setting – my grades improved, I was more motivated to attend my classes and learned that I wasn’t as stupid as I was often made out to be during my school days.

This system of continuous assessments worked more in my favour than the stress of sitting for one major exam. In the former, my success or failure in an educational setting was not entirely dependent on how well I could pass standardised tests that required me to regurgitate facts through essays and open-ended or multiple choice questions.

Instead, I had more time to grasp new and alien concepts, and through activities that promoted continuous development, was able to digest and understand better.

Mixed assessments in schools and universities can be beneficial for developing well-rounded individuals. Source: Shutterstock

Additionally, shy students such as myself are forced between a rock and a hard place – to contribute to class discussions or get a zero for class participation, and to engage in group and solo presentations or risk getting zero for oral presentations.

One benefit to this system is that it gives you the chance to play to your strengths and work hard towards securing top marks in areas you care about. If you preferred the  examination or assignments portion, for example, you could knock it out of the park in those areas to pull up your grades.

Some students may be all-rounders who perform well in both exam-oriented and coursework assessments, but not all students say the same. However, the availability of mixed assessments in schools and universities can be beneficial for developing well-rounded individuals.

Under this system, students who perform poorly in exams will still have to go through them anyway, while students who excel in exam-oriented conditions are also forced to undergo other forms of assessments and develop their skill sets, including creativity, collaboration, oral and critical thinking skills.

Students who argue that their grades will fall under mixed-assessments should rethink the purpose of their education – in most instances, degrees aim to prepare people for employment.

But can exams really prepare students for employment where they’ll be working with people with different skills, requiring them to apply critical thinking and communication skills over a period of time to ensure work is completed within stipulated deadlines, despite hiccups that can happen between the start and finishing line of a project?

It’ll help if parents, educators and policymakers are on the bandwagon, too, instead of merely chasing for children and students to obtain a string of As.  

Grades hold so much power over students’ futures – from the ability to get an academic scholarship to gaining entry to prestigious institutions – and this means it can be difficult to get students who prefer one mode of assessment to convert to one that may potentially negatively affect their grades.

Ideally, education shouldn’t be about pitting one student against the other; it should be based on attaining knowledge and developing skills that will help students in their future careers and make positive contributions to the world.

Exams are still a crucial part of education as some careers depend on a student’s academic attainment (i.e. doctors, etc.). But rather than having one form of assessment over the other, matrimony between the two may help develop holistic students and better prepare them for the world they’ll soon be walking into.

Liked this? Then you’ll love…

Smartphones in schools: Yes, no or maybe?

How do universities maintain a cohesive class culture?

Popular stories

How to improve social skills: 11 top tips from the world’s most successful introverts.

Free or little-to-no charge: The countries with the best healthcare benefits for international students

The road to residency: Easiest countries for international students to get PR

May the Fourth be with you: Best Yoda quotes to get you through university

What is Coursework at University?

In University by Think Student Editor October 5, 2023 Leave a Comment

Compared to the rest of the British education system, university can seem so very different. Lessons are now lectures or seminars, you have complete independence, and you even have the option to live on campus. Plus, there are so many other differences on top of this. This might make you wonder if the components of studying at university are different as well, especially in terms of how the course works. One of the components that’s important to look at in this way is coursework and how it differs at university.

In short, at university coursework is similar to at previous levels of education, where coursework is a form of assessment without exams that helps to make up your grade. At university, this is because successfully completing coursework helps you to pass modules, allowing you to get your qualification. This coursework can come in many different forms and the types you do will depend on your course and your university. However, some of the main types are essays, reports and projects, including research projects such as dissertations.

Continue reading to learn more about what coursework is at university. This article will take you through how coursework works at university and what some of the main types of university coursework are.

Table of Contents

Is there coursework at university?

When thinking about coursework, we tend to be more familiar with the term when it’s associated with school or college. In this case, coursework is a form of internally assessed assignment that will make up a part of your grade.

As a form of assessment, it will often be essential to help you to get your qualification, whether that’s for a GCSE/ National 5 qualification, an A-Level/ Higher or Advanced Higher or a more vocational qualification, such as a BTEC or a T-Level. For more information about what coursework is like at this stage, check out this guide by NI Direct.

As university can feel so different from school or college, you may be wondering whether or not there even is coursework at university and whether it works in the same way.

Simply put, yes, there is coursework at university . In fact, some universities state that most modules will have some form of coursework involved in them.

Students take a range of modules to make up their degree programmes. This means that students are very likely to do at least a bit of coursework in a few of their modules across the course of their studies. You can learn more about this by checking out this page on the University of St Andrews website.

What do you do in coursework at university?

At university there is so much more variation in what you can study and how you study it. From the different classifications of degree, even just within the undergraduate level, from foundation degrees to all the different kinds of bachelor’s degree, such as the BA, BSc or LLB, to all of the other kinds of qualification that you can do at university.

Due to all of this variation, there should be no surprise that in each of these different kinds of courses, students will be taught in different ways. Moreover, there isn’t any actual standardisation across universities, meaning that even on very similar courses, students can be taught with completely different methods.

As a result of this, the coursework that you do at university will completely depend on your course and your university. However, there are some common types of coursework that are done.

Some of these main ones are essays, reports and projects . For more information about what different types of coursework at university might be, you can check out this page by the University of Leeds.

You can learn more about these in their respective sections below.

Is an essay a type of coursework at university?

An essay is an academic piece of writing where students will have to make an argument in response to a certain question. In secondary school and college, you may have come across essays in the form of exam questions, where they would be valued in terms of their marks. For example, you may have had to do a “10-marker”, a “20-marker” and so on.

Alternatively, you may have come across them as part of your own coursework or NEAs, particularly in humanities subjects, where the knowledge and argument you present would be more detailed and in-depth. For university study, essays as a form of coursework, are more similar to the latter as they will need to be well-researched and in-depth .

However, university is at a higher level that school and college . As a result, university essays will need to be as well with students needing to carry out some independent research and reading before they can start the essay rather than relying just on what they have been taught.

You can learn more about essays as a form of coursework at university on this page by the University of Nottingham.

Is a report a type of coursework at university?

Reports and lab reports are a type of coursework that you will probably not have directly come across in previous study, although you may have done something a bit similar. Unlike an essay, a report is purely factual and objective, where the main aim is to present findings and to analyse the data collected, rather than to make an argument.

While they are particularly present in the sciences and social science subjects, reports are a form of coursework that can be used across a large variety of different subjects. Due to this, there are many different types of report and which one you may have to undertake as a part of your coursework will depend on your degree.

For more information about this, look at this page on the University of York’s website.

One of the main types of report is a lab report. This is a type of report done by sciences students after an experiment has been done. You can learn more about them by checking out this guide by the University of Nottingham.

Is a project a type of coursework at university?

For university study, a project as a form of coursework can refer to a few different modes of study. First of all, when talking about a project, we might be referring to a research project.

A research project is an extended essay that students complete by undertaking and then presenting their own research and comparing this to the preexisting ideas. This kind of research project will typically be big and may even be an entire module.

In cases like this, the research project will most likely be in the form of a dissertation or even a thesis if done at doctorate level. You can learn more about this type of project by looking at this page on the University of Sheffield’s website and for more on dissertations, look at the following section.

However, projects can also be in the form of group projects that can vary a bit more across universities. For example, at Imperial College London, students undertake a multidisciplinary group project to try and come up with solutions to the biggest social challenges. You can learn more about this on this page on their website.

Also, the University of Edinburgh Business School runs group consultancy projects at both undergraduate and master’s degree levels. For more information about this, check out this page on their website.

Is a dissertation a type of coursework at university?

At university in the UK, a dissertation is a type of research project that can be taken by students for either a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree. As an extended essay, students will need to produce an answer to a specific question of somewhere between 5,000 and 50,000 words depending on the university and whether it is a bachelor’s or master’s degree that you’re doing.

There are different kinds of dissertation and depending on which kind students do will depend on how they go about writing it. For an empirical dissertation, students will need to carry out research and collect data first hand to use as part of their dissertation. Whereas for a non-empirical dissertation, students will have to research into data and information that is pre-existing.

You can learn more about what a dissertation is by looking at this Think Student article .

As previously mentioned, one of the main types of coursework at university are projects, including research projects. This means that yes, dissertations are a type of coursework at university as they are types of research project.

Academic Manual

• 3. Module Assessment

Section 3: Module Assessment

Published for 2023-24

3.1 Overarching Principles

3.2 forms of assessment, 3.3 assessment methods and tasks, 3.4 digital assessment, 3.5 language of assessment, 3.6 attendance requirements & eligibility for assessment, 3.7 pass mark, 3.8 marking scale , 3.8.1 requirements , 3.8.2 pass/ fail modules and components , 3.8.3 numeric marking scale.

3.8.4 Letter Grade Marking Scale

3.8.5 Conversion of Marks

3.9 component assessment, 3.10  requirements to pass a module, 3.11 no attempt or minimal attempt at assessment, 3.12 deadlines & late submissions.

Modules at Levels 4, 5 and 6:

Modules at Level 7:

3.13 Word Counts

3.14 academic integrity, advice for students.

Further information and advice for students about assessment is available on the  Examinations & Awards webpages .

Recent Changes

A guide to changes to the regulations are available from the  Recent Changes  page.

What is Coursework? | Definition, Meaning & keypoints!

What is coursework.

Coursework is a practical work or study done by a student in partial fulfilment of a degree or training. Projects, field work, design studies, long essays etc constitutes a coursework. The nature of work which requires to be carried out depends on the course. It is largely a part of learning exercise and a step to prepare you to handle the required work/ task effectively and efficiently.

• folios of essays
• art and craft items
• speaking tests
• practical work
• assignments and experiments undertaken and assessed during the course

As per Oxford dictionary “Coursework” is defined as

Written or practical work done by a student during a course of study, usually assessed in order to count towards a final mark or grade.

Who assigns coursework and why?

Coursework can be assigned by your teacher or mentor. The reason can be an assessment by the teacher but in most of the cases it’s a requirement as per course structure. A coursework is meant to reflect understanding of what has been taught. How well you understand it and apply it in different situations. Your own thoughts and way of thinking about a topic is reflected in your final work. As mentioned earlier nature of coursework is very diverse. Institutions may make you to write (essays, paper, term paper, thesis etc) or make something (sculpture, are & craft related things) or take some form of test. All these activities done as a coursework award you marks or grades which are counted to evaluate your overall grade for a particular course or purpose. Your creativity, understanding, innovative aspect, talent etc are reflected in the work done by you. Some of the most widely used form of coursework include thesis, dissertations, research paper & term paper as far as writing is concerned. Model making, crafts and other similar activity is generally given when creativity aspect is to be assessed. There may be a combination of these in few cases. The whole purpose largely depends on what your course and what it prepares you to be.

Major types of coursework & how to go about them?

Students have different and mix reaction when coursework is given. Some are excited as it gives them an option to put in effort and bring out something new. They are happy and confident to present their viewpoint and grasp of the topic. While some feels it is a burden and unnecessary task and just want to get away with it. Whatever the case may be there are few guidelines and rules while writing coursework which everyone should follow. Writing a coursework can also be fun!

Some of the steps to help you get started includes:

Coursework for academic topics which require writing:

• Do some research about your topic of interest or assigned topic
• Finalize your topic
• Prepare a structure especially for long writing coursework such as thesis
• Write an abstract or summary for approval from mentor/teacher.
• Do a thorough research for collecting data , facts.
• Start writing and keep on doing the required research
• Check for plagiarism (if any) and work to remove it
• Give credits & references

What makes a good and effective content

A good and effective content is easy to read and understand by readers. Some of the points while writing a content to improve its quality are

• Well- structured
• Well Illustrated
• Predictable

Coursework requiring you to make something like model, sculpture or artwork

• Find something which you appreciate (its design, concept, through, history, significance)
• Come up with what remains the focus area for your coursework
• Decide what you wish to make and in what form eg. model (scaled or not to scale), sculpture or some craftwork
• Finalize the materials to be used such as waste materials, wax, wood, metal, plastic etc
• Collect all the required stuff for making your masterpiece
• Have a mental image prepared and preferably a rough sketch
• Get working!

Key points to be kept in mind while working on coursework

• Originality – Your topic/ idea should be original. Originality of idea is given significant importance and can be a deal breaker. This is not just of the requirement in most of the cases but also a scoring parameter. There are countless number of students and scholars doing research so having an original idea keeps you on positive side. Some students prefer contacting  SmartWritingService coursework writing service to get professional help from experts.
• Need – If you coursework is solution oriented then you must clearly identify the key problems and issues which you aim to cover under your work. A good solution cannot be provided unless the problem has been understood well.
• Uniqueness – Uniqueness in terms of idea and work. Preparing good questionnaires and conducting surveys adds to uniqueness and originality of content. Not only your topic and but also content should be unique. Avoid plagiarism, copying is a strict “NO”. Any form and extent of plagiarism is dealt seriously if caught and can even disqualify your submission.
• Your Input – This is the most crucial aspect. Your inputs will reflect the understanding and applicability of topic by you. This is the whole purpose of having a coursework. Try your best and put best foot forward. Having a well structured and presented work is something a teacher and mentor is looking for.
• Outcomes & way forward – Having worked and making lots of efforts doesn’t have much value unless useful outcomes are shown. Having a good & meaningful analysis and presentation of data with the  best data extraction service is an essential factor. These can be in form of proposals or problem identification. Your work might conclude your topic or pave a path for others to continue working. Depending on the work and nature of coursework give a conclusion to your study and propose what can be done next or how it can be used.

Coursework & Higher Education

Doctorates are the highest degrees conferred by universities. An online or on campus doctorate can lead to a high-level position in a number of different fields, from business administration to health care to quality control. The lengthy road to earning a doctorate can be shortened by at least several months through online study.

The doctorate degree requires two to five years of postgraduate work, the writing of a thesis, and the passing of oral and written examinations. Most doctoral degrees are the doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree, although recipients of this degree may have studied a number of academic fields other than philosophy.

Doctorate degrees are now available in numerous fields, including:

• Business Administration
• Computer Science
• Environmental Engineering
• Health Administration
• Industrial Engineering
• International Business
• Quality Control

Admission to doctoral programs requires completion of an undergraduate degree program and typically, but not always, of a master’s degree program. Students earning a doctorate must take a specified number of advanced graduate-level courses, requiring at least two or three years of study beyond the master’s degree. Upon passing written or oral examinations, or a combination of both, doctoral students are granted the status of doctoral candidates. Then they must research and write a dissertation on an original topic, and then satisfactorily defend the dissertation before a committee of professors in the field.

About The Author

Study at Cambridge

About the university, research at cambridge.

• Undergraduate courses
• Events and open days
• Fees and finance
• Postgraduate courses
• How to apply
• Postgraduate events
• Fees and funding
• International students
• Continuing education
• Executive and professional education
• Courses in education
• How the University and Colleges work
• Term dates and calendars
• Visiting the University
• Annual reports
• Equality and diversity
• A global university
• Public engagement
• Give to Cambridge
• For Cambridge students
• For our researchers
• Business and enterprise
• Colleges & departments
• Email & phone search
• Museums & collections
• Inclusive Teaching
• Assessment at Cambridge
• Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning
• About overview
• Year in Review
• How to Find Us
• The CCTL Team
• Teaching & Learning Newsletter
• Inclusive Teaching overview
• Guiding Principles
• Students as Partners overview
• Students as Partners [PDF]
• Introduction
• Considerations
• Starting a partnership project
• Case studies
• Networks and journals
• References and resources
• Awarding Gaps overview
• Mind the Gap Toolkit overview
• 1. How do you know? overview
• Quantitative research findings
• Impact of Covid-19
• Limitations of data
• Qualitative research findings
• Sources of useful data
• 2. What are the reasons? overview
• What does the sector say?
• What do Cambridge students say?
• Assessment and awarding gaps
• The deficit approach
• The hidden curriculum
• 3. What works? overview
• What is needed?
• What are we doing?
• Examples of effective practice overview
• 1. Curriculum design
• 2. Assessment & feedback
• 3. Teaching practices
• 4. Learning environments
• 5. Staff & student engagement
• Self-Evaluation Tools overview
• Glossary of Terms
• Readings & Resources
• Consultation Team
• APP Research Project overview
• Cycle 1 (2019-20) overview
• A | Advisory Hub
• A | Anti-Racist Glossary
• A | Mentoring
• A | STEMM Subjects
• B | Content Notes
• B | Diagnosis and Screening
• B | Diversifying Assessment
• B | Double Time
• B | Intermission
• B | Time Costs
• Cycle 2 (2020-21) overview
• A | Curricular Representation
• A | First-Year Transition
• A | Supervisions
• B | Assessment Guidance
• B | Peer Learning
• B | Supervisions
• Cycle 3 (2021-22) overview
• A | Decolonisation
• A | Race and Mental Health
• B | Formative Feedback
• B | Self-Advocacy
• Cycle 4 (2022-23)
• Project Outputs
• Student Skills Strategy overview
• Skills Educators' Network
• Assessment at Cambridge overview
• Assessment Glossary
• Commonly Interchanged Terms
• Inclusive Collegiate Education overview
• Co-Developed Principles
• Progress Report 2022-23
• Briefing Paper
• Intercollegiate Fora
• Peer Learning overview
• Murray Edwards "Subject Advisors"
• Wolfson College "Writing Consultants"
• History of Art "Buddy Groups"
• Support and Initiatives overview
• Inclusive T&L: Disabled Students
• Content Notes overview
• Common misconceptions
• What are content notes? overview
• Why use content notes?
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Other mental health conditions
• Benefits for other students
• How to use content notes overview
• When to use content notes
• Staff concerns
• How to present content notes
• Alternative approaches
• What do I do next?
• Black Advisory Hub
• Teaching Programmes overview
• Cambridge Teaching & Learning Recognition Scheme
• Advancing Educational Practice Programme
• Taking the PGCTLHE
• Short Courses overview
• Supervising Undergraduates
• Supervising Postgraduates
• Accessibility & Disability
• College Role Training
• Events overview
• Cambridge Teaching Forum overview
• Resources from Past Fora overview
• Diversifying Assessment Forum overview
• Intercollegiate Fora overview
• Outputs & Resources
• Annual Meeting: Undergraduate Education overview
• Annual Meeting: Postgraduate Education overview
• Evaluating Access & Participation Plans Forum overview
• Guest Speakers
• Researcher Development Forum
• Teaching Prizes overview
• The Pilkington Prize overview
• Pilkington Prize 2024
• History of the Prize
• Nominations Process
• Previous Prize Winners
• Outstanding Student Contribution to Education Award overview
• OSCEA Nominations Process
• OSCEA Winners 2021
• OSCEA Winners 2020
• OSCEA Winners 2019
• Student-Led Teaching Awards
• Educational Research overview
• Research & Evaluation
• Research & Evaluation Ethics
• Ethics Review Committee overview
• Review Process
• Meeting Dates
• Terms of Reference
• Students as Partners
• Educational Research Networks
• CCTL's Educational Research overview
• Cambridge staff perceptions of generative AI
• Experiences of digital education
• Students' perspectives on diversifying assessment
• Awarding Gaps
• Student Skills Strategy
• Inclusive Collegiate Education
• Peer Learning
• Support and Initiatives

The language surrounding assessment can be complex: specific terms are often used to describe assessment-related practices, and some terms have several different meanings attached to them. This variety is found across the higher education sector as well as within Cambridge.

This glossary aims to provide a point of reference for colleagues at Cambridge when thinking about assessment. It does not provide an exhaustive list of assessment terms.

The glossary may also be used by colleagues to reflect on their practices regarding course design and delivery, particularly in relation to enhancing inclusive assessment practices.

• Academic integrity
• Academic literacy
• Access & Participation Plan
• Accessibility
• "Adjusted Modes of Assessment"
• Adjustments
• Anonymous marking
• Assessment choice
• Assessment conditions
• Assessment criteria
• Assessment for/as learning
• Assessment literacy
• Assessment mapping
• Assessment methods
• Assessment modes
• Assessment of learning
• Authentic assessment
• Awarding gap
• Constructive alignment
• Course design
• Course review and enhancement
• Criterion-referenced assessment
• Diversified assessment
• Double-marking
• External assessor / examiner
• Feedback literacy
• Final degree classification
• Formative assessment
• Framework for Assessment
• Inclusive assessment
• Inclusive curriculum design
• Inclusive curriculum content
• Inclusive teaching
• Learning outcomes
• Marking scheme
• Norm-referencing
• Online assessment
• Peer learning and assessment
• Programme Specification
• Reasonable adjustments
• Reliability
• Remote assessment
• Second marking
• Standardisation
• Student transition
• Summative assessment
• Supervision
• Universal design
• Whole-of-course assessment strategy

© 2024 University of Cambridge

• Contact the University
• Freedom of information
• Privacy policy and cookies
• Statement on Modern Slavery
• Terms and conditions
• University A-Z
• Undergraduate
• Postgraduate
• Research news
• About research at Cambridge
• Spotlight on...

Created by the Great Schools Partnership , the GLOSSARY OF EDUCATION REFORM is a comprehensive online resource that describes widely used school-improvement terms, concepts, and strategies for journalists, parents, and community members. | Learn more »

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support .

The general goal of formative assessment is to collect detailed information that can be used to improve instruction and student learning while it’s happening . What makes an assessment “formative” is not the design of a test, technique, or self-evaluation, per se, but the way it is used—i.e., to inform in-process teaching and learning modifications.

Formative assessments are commonly contrasted with summative assessments , which are used to evaluate student learning progress and achievement at the conclusion of a specific instructional period—usually at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year. In other words, formative assessments are for learning, while summative assessments are of learning. Or as assessment expert Paul Black put it, “When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative assessment. When the customer tastes the soup, that’s summative assessment.” It should be noted, however, that the distinction between formative and summative is often fuzzy in practice, and educators may hold divergent interpretations of and opinions on the subject.

Many educators and experts believe that formative assessment is an integral part of effective teaching. In contrast with most summative assessments, which are deliberately set apart from instruction, formative assessments are integrated into the teaching and learning process. For example, a formative-assessment technique could be as simple as a teacher asking students to raise their hands if they feel they have understood a newly introduced concept, or it could be as sophisticated as having students complete a self-assessment of their own writing (typically using a rubric outlining the criteria) that the teacher then reviews and comments on. While formative assessments help teachers identify learning needs and problems, in many cases the assessments also help students develop a stronger understanding of their own academic strengths and weaknesses. When students know what they do well and what they need to work harder on, it can help them take greater responsibility over their own learning and academic progress.

While the same assessment technique or process could, in theory, be used for either formative or summative purposes, many summative assessments are unsuitable for formative purposes because they do not provide useful feedback. For example, standardized-test scores may not be available to teachers for months after their students take the test (so the results cannot be used to modify lessons or teaching and better prepare students), or the assessments may not be specific or fine-grained enough to give teachers and students the detailed information they need to improve.

The following are a few representative examples of formative assessments:

• Questions that teachers pose to individual students and groups of students during the learning process to determine what specific concepts or skills they may be having trouble with. A wide variety of intentional questioning strategies may be employed, such as phrasing questions in specific ways to elicit more useful responses.
• Specific, detailed, and constructive feedback that teachers provide on student work , such as journal entries, essays, worksheets, research papers, projects, ungraded quizzes, lab results, or works of art, design, and performance. The feedback may be used to revise or improve a work product, for example.
• “Exit slips” or “exit tickets” that quickly collect student responses to a teacher’s questions at the end of a lesson or class period. Based on what the responses indicate, the teacher can then modify the next lesson to address concepts that students have failed to comprehend or skills they may be struggling with. “Admit slips” are a similar strategy used at the beginning of a class or lesson to determine what students have retained from previous learning experiences .
• Self-assessments that ask students to think about their own learning process, to reflect on what they do well or struggle with, and to articulate what they have learned or still need to learn to meet course expectations or learning standards.
• Peer assessments that allow students to use one another as learning resources. For example, “workshopping” a piece of writing with classmates is one common form of peer assessment, particularly if students follow a rubric or guidelines provided by a teacher.

In addition to the reasons addressed above, educators may also use formative assessment to:

• Refocus students on the learning process and its intrinsic value, rather than on grades or extrinsic rewards.
• Encourage students to build on their strengths rather than fixate or dwell on their deficits. (For a related discussion, see growth mindset .)
• Help students become more aware of their learning needs, strengths, and interests so they can take greater responsibility over their own educational growth. For example, students may learn how to self-assess their own progress and self-regulate their behaviors.
• Give students more detailed, precise, and useful information. Because grades and test scores only provide a general impression of academic achievement, usually at the completion of an instructional period, formative feedback can help to clarify and calibrate learning expectations for both students and parents. Students gain a clearer understanding of what is expected of them, and parents have more detailed information they can use to more effectively support their child’s education.
• Raise or accelerate the educational achievement of all students, while also reducing learning gaps and achievement gaps .

While the formative-assessment concept has only existed since the 1960s, educators have arguably been using “formative assessments” in various forms since the invention of teaching. As an intentional school-improvement strategy, however, formative assessment has received growing attention from educators and researchers in recent decades. In fact, it is now widely considered to be one of the more effective instructional strategies used by teachers, and there is a growing body of literature and academic research on the topic.

Schools are now more likely to encourage or require teachers to use formative-assessment strategies in the classroom, and there are a growing number of professional-development opportunities available to educators on the subject. Formative assessments are also integral components of personalized learning and other educational strategies designed to tailor lessons and instruction to the distinct learning needs and interests of individual students.

While there is relatively little disagreement in the education community about the utility of formative assessment, debates or disagreements may stem from differing interpretations of the term. For example, some educators believe the term is loosely applied to forms of assessment that are not “truly” formative, while others believe that formative assessment is rarely used appropriately or effectively in the classroom.

Another common debate is whether formative assessments can or should be graded. Many educators contend that formative assessments can only be considered truly formative when they are ungraded and used exclusively to improve student learning. If grades are assigned to a quiz, test, project, or other work product, the reasoning goes, they become de facto summative assessments—i.e., the act of assigning a grade turns the assessment into a performance evaluation that is documented in a student’s academic record, as opposed to a diagnostic strategy used to improve student understanding and preparation before they are given a graded test or assignment.

Some educators also make a distinction between “pure” formative assessments—those that are used on a daily basis by teachers while they are instructing students—and “interim” or “benchmark” assessments, which are typically periodic or quarterly assessments used to determine where students are in their learning progress or whether they are on track to meeting expected learning standards. While some educators may argue that any assessment method that is used diagnostically could be considered formative, including interim assessments, others contend that these two forms of assessment should remain distinct, given that different strategies, techniques, and professional development may be required.

Some proponents of formative assessment also suspect that testing companies mislabel and market some interim standardized tests as “formative” to capitalize on and profit from the popularity of the idea. Some observers express skepticism that commercial or prepackaged products can be authentically formative, arguing that formative assessment is a sophisticated instructional technique, and to do it well requires both a first-hand understanding of the students being assessed and sufficient training and professional development.

Alphabetical Search

We use COOKIES to make your user experience better.

By staying on our website, you fully accept it. Learn more » It's OK

What is Coursework

First of all, you need to understand what is coursework and how to write it. When one is writing a coursework, they have to do profound research that will reveal their knowledge base. A coursework may consist of design studies, field work, projects, long essays, and other kinds of work. Depending on the particular course, it can be performed in a number of ways. You need to write a coursework not only to show what you know about a particular subject and enlarge your knowledge base but also to prepare yourself to deal with the work you will need to perform in the future.

The Oxford Dictionary defines coursework as the type of practical or written work performed by a student and assessed by their professor. Hopefully, it makes the coursework meaning clearer for you.

Limited time offer 15% OFF your first order! (Code: masters15)

Why coursework is necessary and who assigns it.

Now when you know what is coursework, you also have to understand why it is needed. Usually, a student's mentor or teacher assigns coursework as it is a part of the course structure. Writing a coursework is important since it helps the student reflect on what they have learned from the given course. Realizing the coursework meaning, one can understand the material better and see how their knowledge can be applied in various situations. This type of work also reveals the student's way of thinking and helps them learn how to express their thoughts. Coursework has an utterly diverse nature. A student's instructor can ask them to perform it in a written way and work on an essay, term paper, or thesis (this form of coursework is the most widespread). A coursework can also be done in a more creative way; for example, a student may be asked to create a sculpture. At times, taking a test is preferred by the instructor. In some cases, several types of coursework can be combined into one. Choosing a specific type or a combination of types depends on the course. Whatever the kind of coursework is, it always requires being evaluated. The student's mark will be based on their understanding of the topic, creativity, as well as on the innovative aspect of their work.

How to Perform the Most Important Types of Coursework?

Even understanding the coursework meaning, students have mixed feelings on it. Some of them like to do research, learn new information, and write about the results, while for others, it seems to be an unnecessary task, or even a burden. Whichever opinion is true for you, being a student, you will still have to write a coursework at some point. For this reason, you need to know how to do it successfully. Below you see the list of rules and guidelines that will make this task easier for you.

Read these steps carefully and make sure you follow them as they will help you get started.

Coursework that requires writing:

• Carry out superficial research on the topic of your coursework.
• Settle on your topic.
• Work on the structure of your coursework.
• Make a summary or an abstract and confirm it with your instructor.
• Conduct profound research to find all the information you need.
• While writing, keep on researching the topic more.
• When you are done, check your coursework for plagiarism.
• Make a reference list.

To make sure that your coursework features a good content that is clear and easy-to-understand for your reader, work on the structure of your work. Check out if you maintain its consistency, use relevant information, complete your topic, and make it look concise.<

Coursework that requires to create a model, sculpture, or artwork:

• Find a design or concept you like.
• See how it can be applied to the area of your study.
• Think about what you want to create and decide on the scale of this object.
• Decide what kind of materials you need to finalize your work.
• Find everything you need for creating your artwork.
• Make sure that you have a mental image of the result and make a rough sketch of it.
• Begin working!

Key points you should consider:

• Originality - You need to be sure that your topic or idea is original. It is an extremely important point you have to keep in mind from the very beginning of your work. Numerous researches are being done by numerous people, so you have to make yours stand out.
• Need - Your coursework should be able to answer certain questions or find solutions. For that, it has to identify the key problems and help the reader understand them clearly.
• Uniqueness - Both your topic and your content have to be unique. Make sure to avoid plagiarism and never copy information from other sources. Conduct surveys or prepare questionnaires to add originality to the content of your coursework.
• Your input - This aspect is very important. When working on your coursework, you need to reflect on your topic a lot and understand how you can apply it. If you do it, the purpose of writing a coursework is served. For this reason, do your best to make as much input in your work as possible.
• Outcomes & future applications - Even if you have worked hard and put a lot of effort into writing your coursework, it can turn out to be a failure in case you do not show useful outcomes. Therefore, you need to provide a well-made analysis of the information you used. Make a well-structured conclusion for your topic and talk about the way it can be researched further.

If you keep all these points in mind and follow the guidelines, you will certainly write a good coursework.

Buy Coursework at Dissertationmasters.com

First Order Discount 15% OFF

Authorization

Latest blogs

Definition Essay: Basic Components and Interesting Topics

What is coursework | definition, meaning & key points.

Our Advantages

• Custom Writing on Any Subject
• English-speaking Writers
• Only Original Papers
• Affordable Prices
• Complete Confidentiality
• BA, MA and PhD Writers
• Up-to-date Sources Only
• Any Citation Style

Paper Features

• You choose font face
• 12 point font size
• Double-spaced pages
• Over 300 words/page
• Text aligned left
• One-inch margins

• Supervisor login

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

You are here, healthspan: what does it mean to be healthy in older age.

Description  This is part of a program of research into health aging and understanding how we can prolong healthspan (life years lived in good health), and reduce the burden of conditions like dementia and frailty. This project will leverage extensive longitudinal data collected over 10+ years on a large population of community dwelling individuals aged predominantly over 70 years at recruitment (ASPREE and ASPREE-XT study). Essential criteria:  Minimum entry requirements can be found here: https://www.monash.edu/admissions/entry-requirements/minimum Keywords  Aging; Ageing; Biological Aging; Frailty; Healthspan School  School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Available options  PhD/Doctorate Masters by research Masters by coursework Honours BMedSc(Hons) Time commitment  Full-time Part-time Physical location  Alfred Centre, The Alfred Hospital Research webpage  https://www.monash.edu/medicine/sphpm/units/biological-neuropsychiatry-and-demen… Co-supervisors  Dr  Sara Espinoza (External)

Want to apply for this project? Submit an Expression of Interest by clicking on Contact the researcher .

Advertisement

Supported by

news analysis

Turning Point or Breaking Point? Biden’s Pause on Weapons Tests Ties to Israel.

President Biden hopes the decision to withhold the delivery of 3,500 bombs will prompt Israel to change course in its war in Gaza.

• Share full article

By Peter Baker

Reporting from Washington

The message was not getting through. Not through the phone calls or the emissaries or the public statements or the joint committee meetings. And so, frustrated that he was being ignored, President Biden chose a more dramatic way of making himself clear to Israeli leaders. He stopped sending the bombs.

Mr. Biden’s decision to pause the delivery of 3,500 bombs to Israel was meant to convey a powerful signal that his patience has limits. While insisting that his support for the Jewish state remains “ironclad,” Mr. Biden for the first time since the Gaza war erupted last fall opted to use his power as Israel’s chief arms supplier to demonstrate his discontent.

The hold on the bombs represents a significant turning point in the 76-year-old relationship between the United States and Israel, historically one of the closest security partnerships in the world. But it may not necessarily be a breaking point. The Biden administration is still allowing most other weapons to be sent to Israel, and in fact officials emphasized that no final decision has even been made on the bombs that are currently in limbo.

Mr. Biden hopes the selective pause will prompt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to forgo a long-threatened invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million Palestinians have taken refuge. The president has objected to such an operation out of fear that widespread civilian casualties could be caused by American bombs. He said on Wednesday that he would also block the delivery of artillery shells that could be fired into the urban neighborhoods of Rafah.

“I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet, they’re not going to get our support if in fact they go on these population centers,” the president said in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday, referring to Mr. Netanyahu by his nickname. “We’re not walking away from Israel’s security; we’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.”

He acknowledged in a way that he has rarely done that American bombs have killed innocent Palestinians. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Mr. Biden said.

Israeli plans to storm Rafah have been a source of intense friction with the Biden administration for months. While the Americans oppose such an operation, the Israelis maintain they need to go into Rafah to finish destroying Hamas, which killed 1,200 people in its Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.

The dispute has come to a head in recent days as Mr. Netanyahu and his war cabinet appeared close to a decision to move against Rafah despite U.S. objections. Administration officials said they had begun reviewing arms last month that could be used in the operation and that Mr. Biden had signed off on the bomb hold last week.

“The decision means Biden has decided to use his only real form of leverage over Bibi — withholding weapons,” said Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, who had just returned from a trip to the Middle East. “It’s a low point for U.S.-Israel relations, as it begins to put Israeli security in play. Biden had no choice. The war is a drag on his election campaign, on Democratic Party unity and on U.S. standing in the world.”

The administration was hoping the pause would send a quiet message and did not announce it publicly at first, but the Israelis leaked it. In the days since the decision, Israel ordered the evacuation of 110,000 civilians in Rafah, conducted airstrikes against targets on the edges of the city, sent in tanks and seized the crossing with Egypt. Although these moves were characterized as limited and not the beginning of the promised assault, they touched off alarms in the White House.

The Israeli actions, which came in part in response to Hamas rocket attacks that killed four Israeli soldiers last weekend, seem to be intended to keep the pressure on Hamas to agree to a temporary cease-fire in exchange for the release of some of the hostages taken on Oct. 7.

Whether such a deal is possible remains uncertain. William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director who has been deeply involved in the negotiations, met on Wednesday with Mr. Netanyahu in Jerusalem even as other officials conferred in Cairo about competing offers from the two sides. Reaching such a deal may be the only way to avoid a more serious rupture between Israel and the Biden administration, analysts said.

“What they’re asking for is for Israel not to go into Rafah in a significant way,” said Elliott Abrams, a Middle East specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations who served in multiple Republican administrations. “Barring a hostage deal, I think the Israelis are going to go into Rafah and it is going to cause a great deal of tension.”

The relationship between the United States and Israel has been a singular one since the Jewish state declared its independence in 1948 and President Harry S. Truman just 11 minutes later made the United States the first nation in the world to recognize it. But the relationship has also long been marked by moments of deep stress.

At first, under both Truman and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the United States refused to sell Israel weapons at all. President John F. Kennedy became the first to open up the arsenal by providing Hawk antiaircraft missiles. President Lyndon B. Johnson expanded ties by sending M-48 tanks, A-4 Skyhawk planes and F-4 Phantom planes.

Presidents have held back aid to Israel before to indicate displeasure or influence policy. President Ronald Reagan more than once delayed shipments of warplanes and other munitions out of dissatisfaction with Israeli intervention in Lebanon. President George H.W. Bush postponed $10 billion in housing loan guarantees to keep American money from being used to finance settlement construction in the West Bank.

But overall, since World War II, the United States has given more aid to Israel than any other country in the world. As of last year, the United States had provided $158.7 billion to Israel since its founding, the vast bulk of it, or $124.3 billion, for its military and its missile defenses, according to the Congressional Research Service . Under a 10-year memorandum of understanding sealed by President Barack Obama, Washington currently provides $3.8 billion a year in military aid, not counting the $15 billion in additional help approved last month by Congress and signed into law by Mr. Biden .

Republicans quickly criticized Mr. Biden on Wednesday after Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III publicly confirmed reports of the delayed bomb shipment at a Senate hearing. “This is obscene. It is absurd,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told the defense secretary. “Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose.”

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the party’s leader in the Senate, said he had called Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, on Wednesday morning “to express my concern to the administration that the delay of shipment of weapons to Israel is just another way of trying to tell an ally how to conduct the war.” He and House Speaker Mike Johnson later sent a letter to Mr. Biden protesting the decision.

On the other hand, Democrats and progressives who have been pressing Mr. Biden to limit or cut off arms to curtail Israel’s war said the president’s action was long overdue and still not enough after more than 34,000 have died in Gaza, including both combatants and civilians.

Senator Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont, said Mr. Biden’s decision was “absolutely right” but should only be the start. “Our leverage is clear,” he said. “Over the years, the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We can no longer be complicit in Netanyahu’s horrific war against the Palestinian people.”

The decision got the attention of Mr. Netanyahu and his war cabinet. Shalom Lipner, a longtime adviser to multiple Israeli prime ministers, said it “struck a deep chord of concern within Israel, where people are wondering how limiting Israel’s access to weaponry — a move which is certain to embolden Hamas — might be reconciled with Biden’s oft-repeated ironclad commitment to its security.”

But he added that “it would be to Israel’s strategic detriment for the Netanyahu government to ignore the loud pushback from its main provider of military and diplomatic support.”

The 3,500 bombs held back last week include both 2,000-pound and 500-pound munitions. The State Department is also still weighing whether to proceed with the delivery of Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits that can convert so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided weapons, but there is no imminent shipment at the moment. At the same time, officials said they would still provide “every dollar” of aid authorized in the new congressional package.

Mr. Kupchan, the analyst, said that the course of the U.S.-Israeli relationship would turn on what happens next. If Mr. Netanyahu defers to Mr. Biden’s judgment on Rafah, it may just be a momentary flare-up. But if the two leaders remain at a standoff, it could lead to a broader cutoff of weapons, which would have a more lasting effect.

“The foundation of U.S.-Israel relations is so strong that it won’t be significantly damaged by this move,” Mr. Kupchan said. “Further withholdings, however, while quite unlikely, would be a different story.”

Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The Times. He has covered the last five presidents and sometimes writes analytical pieces that place presidents and their administrations in a larger context and historical framework. More about Peter Baker

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

The flow of aid to Gaza through border crossings has come to a near-total stop , first closed off by Israel and then further restricted, officials say, by Egypt.

A White House spokesman told Israel that an assault on Rafah, where more than one million people are sheltering, would not eradicate Hamas . For months, the U.S. has urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians .

The main United Nations agency that aids Palestinians, known as UNRWA, said that it had temporarily closed its headquarters  in East Jerusalem for the safety of its staff after parts of the compound were set on fire following weeks of attacks.

A Presidential Move: Ronald Reagan also used  the power of American arms to influence  Israeli war policy. The comparison underscores how much the politics of Israel have changed in the United States since the 1980s.

Netanyahu ' s Concerns: Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, under pressure from all sides, is trying to reassure his many domestic, military and diplomatic critics. Here’s a look at what he is confronting .

Al Jazeera Shutdown: The influential Arab news network says it will continue reporting from Gaza and the West Bank, but its departure from Israel mark s a new low in its long-strained history with the country .

Hobbling Education for Years: Most of Gaza’s schools, including all 12 of its universities, have severe damage that makes them unusable , which could harm an entire generation of students, the U.N. and others say.