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Online course|
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Assessment by Design: Creating Better Assessments

assessment design → cognitive progression → question construction → marking → moderation → using outcomes to improve teaching and learning

✓Curriculum Reviewed & CPD-Accredited by Expert Faculty
⏱Self-paced learning
|📚3 modules · 15 lectures
|⏱️40 minutes

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Assessment by Design: Creating Better Assessments

Course Overview

Effective assessment should do more than measure what students can remember. When designed well, it provides a meaningful picture of what students know, what they can apply and where further teaching or support may be needed.

Assessment by Design: Creating Better Assessments provides practical guidance for designing, structuring and marking assessments for students in the lower and middle years of secondary education. Learners explore how to align assessments with the taught curriculum, balance knowledge with application and deeper thinking, build appropriate levels of challenge, and create questions that progressively develop students’ assessment skills. 

The course also explores effective mark schemes, moderation and consistent marking, helping teachers use assessment not simply to generate results, but to inform teaching, identify gaps and misconceptions, and prepare students progressively for the greater demands of upper secondary education and external qualifications. 

The principles can be adapted across British, IB, American and other international curriculum frameworks, as well as across different subject areas.

What You'll Learn

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Design curriculum-aligned assessments that accurately reflect the knowledge and skills students have been taught.
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Structure assessments with progressive cognitive demand, moving from retrieval and understanding to application, analysis and evaluation.
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Create effective questions that balance accessibility, appropriate challenge and opportunities for deeper thinking.
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Select appropriate assessment and question formats to measure knowledge, reasoning, application and subject-specific skills.
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Develop clear and reliable mark schemes that support fair, accurate and consistent marking.
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Use assessment outcomes and moderation to strengthen practice, identify gaps and misconceptions, and progressively prepare students for more demanding future assessments.

Who Is This Course For?

This course is designed for secondary educators involved in designing, delivering, marking or reviewing student assessments, regardless of the curriculum framework they work within.

It is particularly suitable for classroom teachers, subject leaders, heads of department, curriculum leaders, assessment coordinators, teaching and learning leads, and school leaders seeking to strengthen assessment quality and consistency.

It is also valuable for early-career teachers, new-starter professional development and whole-school or departmental training, particularly where schools want to establish a more consistent approach to assessment and better prepare students for the increasing academic demands they will encounter as they progress through secondary education.

3 modules | 15 lectures

Course Content

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What makes an effective secondary school assessment?

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An effective assessment is aligned with the taught curriculum, measures both knowledge and application, and gives students opportunities to demonstrate different levels of thinking. Well-designed assessments progressively move from retrieval and understanding towards application, analysis and evaluation, while remaining accessible and appropriately challenging.

2. How can teachers design better assessments for students?

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Teachers can improve assessment design by aligning questions with curriculum content, using a range of question types, building cognitive challenge progressively and ensuring marks reflect the demands of each task. Clear mark schemes and moderation also help improve the fairness and consistency of assessment.

3. How can assessment prepare students for future examinations?

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Assessment can progressively develop retrieval fluency, reasoning, application of knowledge, analytical thinking, extended writing, academic vocabulary and examination stamina. Increasing these demands gradually helps students become more confident and better prepared for upper-secondary study and external examinations

4. Is this assessment training suitable for British, IB and American curriculum schools?

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Yes. Assessment by Design: Creating Better Assessments focuses on transferable principles of effective assessment rather than one examination system. It is suitable for teachers and school leaders working across British, IB, American and other international curricula, with approaches that can be adapted to different subjects, age groups and school assessment frameworks.

5. How can schools improve consistency in marking and assessment?

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Consistency improves when teachers work from clear mark schemes, agree expectations and use moderation and standardisation to compare marking decisions. Building banks of moderated work and exemplar responses can also help departments establish shared standards across subjects, classes and teachers.

6. How can teachers make assessments challenging without making them unfair?

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Effective challenge should come from reasoning, interpretation, application and deeper thinking, not confusing language or trick questions. A well-designed assessment provides accessible entry points while progressively increasing cognitive demand, allowing students at different levels to demonstrate what they genuinely know and can do
Have more general questions about CPD accreditation or certification?Explore Knowledge Base →

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Assessment by Design: Creating Better Assessments | Certified CPD®