On including assessments in the calculation of teaching loads.

Abstract

Next to courses and seminars, tests and assessments represent the main parameters with which to describe an academic study program independent of its curricular content. Thus, the quality of education depends not only on the quality of the courses taught and how they are interconnected, but also on the quality of testing and the feedback given to students regarding their performance. Course quality should be ensured through course evaluation. The economic cost of courses is calculated based on the required teaching load. The concept of teaching load stems from the time when program planning was instructor-centered. The main variable in the rules and regulations governing university study was the number of hours per week per semester (or number of course hours). But even in today's student-centered planning, which uses ECTS credits per module as the variable, teaching loads are still used to determine the number of staff necessary to offer an academic study program. Some universities also include the assessments in the evaluation. Yet the economic costs of testing are de facto ignored almost everywhere, and this does not bode well for the quality of the assessments. Much progress would be made to improve higher education if assessments counted as part of the teaching loads and the curricular norm values. This paper identifies which requirements must be considered in order to include assessments in teaching loads.