‘The “SkillSense for Assessment Mastery” Programme’: Developing Engaged Learners through a Community of Practice Approach

This paper introduces the 'SkillSense for Assessment Mastery (SSAM) Programme’ designed to teach assessment literacy to First Year Undergraduate Students within higher education, outlining its theoretical rationale and research-informed insights for its implementation. The SSAM Programme aims to enhance the student understanding of the assessment process and teaches how to align assessments with academic skills and learning outcomes. The programme includes workshops that teach students assessment literacy, and how to use feedback effectively (self-agency) based on the purposefully designed Academic Skills Feedback and Marking Rubric (ASR). The overall goal of the Programme is to teach assessment literacy to increase students’ sense of belonging in their academic Community of Practice (CoP). By developing their understanding of assessments, we can cultivate students' self-efficacy and confidence when it comes to their academic performance and reflective learning. By transitioning a student from a peripheral to a core member of their CoP by increasing their learner identity, they gain a sense of belonging. This then increases self-efficacy and confidence in their assessment abilities and in turn, academic achievement. To gather student voice and evaluate the effectiveness of the Programme, quantitative and qualitative data has been collected. Along with a brief description of the Programme, this current paper will share data from a UK Higher Education Institution (collected during 2022-24) to demonstrate its effectiveness in promoting student development.