On Wednesday, July 3, faculty members at Hensard University in Toru-Orua, Bayelsa State, participated in an intense capacity building programme focused on creating valid assessment tasks, utilizing suitable grading schemes, and setting up pedagogical strategies to guarantee that the goals of instruction and assessment are met.

 

The training, which was facilitated by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dileep Kumar M, was attended by principal officers of the University Management team, including academic staff and other instructional researchers.

 

The goal of the training according to Prof Kumar, is to harmonize academic processes and timelines for admitting and evaluating students into the university’s graduate programmes in accordance with guidelines authorised by the National Universities Commission (NUC). The discussion also aimed to discuss the best approaches for assisting new students in catching up on their coursework and making sure they were sufficiently prepared for their exams.

 

In his Lecture titled: “Bloom’s Taxonomy and Assessment”, the Vice-Chancellor outlined the various cognitive levels for classifying educational assessment. He elaborated the Bloom’s Taxonomy to be an evaluation framework consisting of six cognitive processes: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. Following knowledge, there were categories labeled "skills and abilities," with the idea being that knowledge was a prerequisite for putting these skills and abilities into practice.

 

Prof. Kumar further explained that there were subcategories within each cognitive category, all of which fell along a continuum from basic to intricate and from observable to abstract. According to him, the taxonomy is a helpful teaching tool that can be readily adjusted to the university setting to guide student testing and assessment.

 

Following the brainstorming session, a weekend Tutorial classes was arranged to help new students catch up on coursework they have missed.

 

The University Registrar, Dr. Kebiru Umoru, also spoke to the participants and praised them for their support of the University Management and commitment to the capacity building training. 

 

“We thank you all for your continuous support and we hope that the experience from this workshop will build your individual capacity to handle challenges in student assessment and grading and other related issues in accordance with approved NUC standards and best practices,” the Registrar said.

 

He also thanked the Vice-chancellor for his continuous effort in promoting professionalism through staff development and training.