Implementing Weekly Student Work Assessment and Study Progress Support

In June 2001, the Norwegian Parliament passed a resolution on a new reform for higher education, which was to be implemented as from the first term of 2003. Essential to the reform was to replace the Norwegian post-graduate degrees with the more international bachelor and master’s degrees, a closer follow-up of students’ progress, new forms of exam and evaluation, quality control, internationalisation, and new economic support regarding scholarships and student loans. The intention behind the reform was also to replace a common study practice of intensive reading shortly before an exam with a continuous study progress. The main tactic was to follow up students more closely and to change the way in which they learn by implementing mid-term assessments and continuous assessments of students’ work (exercises, projects, essays, etc). In this paper, we present the result of an attempt to organise work assessments and study progress work, in addition to the end-of-course examination. Our intention with the former was to evaluate also the more practical knowledge that students acquired through exercise work. We also arranged weekly multiple-choice tests in an attempt to encourage students to read continuously. Based on our own reflections and student evaluation, we have made some suggestion for improvements.