SkillSense for Academic Mastery (SSAM) Programme: Building a sense of belonging to strengthen engagement and increase equity for Higher Education students.

Assessment literacy—the ability to understand academic expectations, interpret marking criteria, and apply feedback—is crucial for student achievement. However, many students struggle with these elements of academic assessment as they lack confidence in understanding assessment criteria, structuring assignments, and interpreting feedback. This means that University assessments in the UK can be a major source of anxiety for many students. These difficulties can impact student engagement, self-efficacy, and overall academic achievement. SkillSense for Assessment Mastery (SSAM) Programme', is an initiative designed for undergraduate and international post graduate students in higher education to address assessment fears by teaching assessment literacy in an interactive, student-centred way. In doing so, it improves student confidence, self-efficacy, and sense of belonging to the academic community

'SkillSense for Assessment Mastery (SSAM) ©’ Programme. The program aims to deepen understanding of the learning process, provide tailored support for individual learning needs, and align assessments with essential academic skills. Emphasizing fairness and equity, it addresses diversity among students and promotes a sense of belonging within the academic Community of Practice (CoP). The Programme comprises of several workshops that contain a presentation and peer and self-assessment activities, which are all based on the teaching and application of language in McDowell's specially designed Academic Skills Feedback and Marking Rubric (ASR). The focus is on the crucial role of assessment and feedback in higher education to cultivate students' self-efficacy and essential skills development. The initiative focuses on scaffolding reflective learning for Higher Education students, and quantitative and qualitative data collection methods for ongoing evaluation and development have been deployed.