Examining assessment principles and practices within the online components of an initial teacher education programme in Aotearoa New Zealand

Learning and assessment that drives learner success should be a key tenet of all initial teacher education programmes. Initial teacher education providers in Aotearoa New Zealand must use an assessment framework to ensure that graduating teachers meet the Teaching Council standards. As a part of a review of their assessment practices, academic staff at an education institution conducted a survey to learn more about the practices and experiences of online assessment among their students and lecturers. It became apparent that, despite the large body of literature outlining the principles of good assessment, the range of assessment practices for online learning were not always being used or understood by students and lecturers. The findings highlighted that there is a wide variation in assessment practices between lecturers, and some students found tasks and feedback did not enhance their learning. From this we argue that closer attention be given to ensuring a wide range of assessment tasks are used, feedback practices are focused on improving student learning, and, most importantly, learner agency is upheld.