Let’s Talk About The Balance of Formative Coursework versus Summative Assessments: An Important Trade-off to Consider When Enrolling at University of London’s BSc in Computer Science

Hello /r/UniversityOfLondonCS!

An online Bachelor’s programme like University of London’s BSc is by it’s very nature different from a more traditional on-campus experience. Although it may not be any better or worse quantitatively, the difference in itself makes it important for one to consider the various tradeoffs that the two approaches bring.

Today I’d like to talk about one of those differences: which is the balance between formative coursework, and summative assessments, that I have noticed in my 3 academic terms here.

Generally, a student’s progress in any academic course is assessed in two ways. Through formative assessments (which I’ll call coursework here), and summative assessments. A formative assessment is like a pop quiz, or a optional project. It’s something that does not affect your final grade in the module, but is only a means of giving feedback to the student. Some examples of formative coursework in the various modules I’ve experienced are:

• Practice quizzes: Usually quite short, but present after every video lecture,
• Discussion Prompt: Where you are asked to brainstorm the solution to a problem, and talk with other classmates about the solution. These are present in every week’s worth of lessons.
• Peer-reviewed projects: This is the most major formative coursework present. A project can be a math paper exploring a certain topic, a program, or game. These are sent in for ‘grading’ and feedback by your peers. There are usually 3 or 4 of them in a module.

All of the above are formative, because they do not affect your final grade in the module at all. You might be given a ‘grade’, but it’s purely for your own feedback.

The summative assessments in the modules generally consist of:

• Unit quizzes: Longer and more difficult than the practice quizzes, and occur once every two weeks. They are timed, and you only get 2 or 3 attempts per quiz. Each quiz is usually worth from 4 to 8% of your final module grade.
• Midterm assessment: Generally a take-home test, or a project. These are graded by an instructor, and usually count for up to 25% of one’s overall module grade.
• End-of-term exam: These are the big, two hour long exams that one takes at an exam center. They are worth 50% of your overall module grade.

Do you spot the overall pattern? In my experience, I’ve noticed that in all of my modules, there is far more formative coursework than summative assessments, both in terms of the actual quantity, and amount of hours required to complete each one.

Of the few summative assessments per module, the majority of one’s final grade is from one or two assessments. By default, 50% of one’s grade comes from the final exam. And typically, the midterm project/take-home-exam is worth another 25% of one’s grade (but not always - this depends on the type of module you are taking). The various summative quizzes are each worth only a few percentage points of one’s total grade, but they add up to the remaining 25%.

Why is this the case? Why is such a large portion of one’s grade dependent on only a few assessments?

It sort of is harsh! But sadly, the reason the assessments of the course is structured this way, is due to the simple reality of an online distance-learning programme.

In a regular, physical college – one’s professors have the physical immediacy to check on their student’s work. They might have many small quizzes or tests throughout the year, which they may give at their leisure. And at the end of the year, when the time for the final grade comes – the professor is able to look back at their gradebook, and take all the small assignments from throughout the year, and come up with an overall idea of the student’s progress.

Sure, there may be large exams that are worth significant portions of one’s grades – but overall, there’s more opportunities for a professor to get a holistic image of a given student. Essentially, the ratio between formative and summative assessments are more balanced at physical universities.

In contrast, at a distance-learning programme like the University of London, it is not possible to have that level of access and physical immediacy. There’s only one opportunity for an exam per module, and that’s at the end of the year. Likewise, because the degree is self-paced, professors do not have the means to review all the projects. That’s why the vast majority of projects – even though they are significant in scope – are peer-reviewed instead.

Hence, by signing up for a programme like the Univeristy of London, you’ll have to understand that the balance between formative and summative assignments is tilted unfavorably. There are only few summative assignments, but they are also worth large portions of one’s grade.

And likewise, because much of the coursework here is formative, it is considered ‘optional’. Some people (unwisely) skip them, because they do not think it has to be done, since it’s ‘not worth a grade’.

That is a very unwise idea, because even though the formative projects are optional, they are no less difficult or rigorous than the summative assessments that one encounter. In fact, much of one’s learning is conducted through them, instead of the assessments.

In this lies my advice to the prospective student. Make sure that you understand the trade-offs involved in terms of having a programme that’s biased towards fewer, but more significant summative assignments. And don’t forget to do all the formative coursework, because even though they are ‘optional’ – skipping them will really harm your learning.