Continuous Assessment Improved Academic Achievement and Satisfaction of Psychology Students in Spain

Abstract

The authors present the experience of a continuous assessment procedure carried out in the second term of a physiological psychology course during 3 consecutive academic years at a Spanish university. Each year, the academic outcomes of students under continuous assessment (the experimental group) were compared with those of students under traditional assessment (the control group), with 903 total students. To control for possible differences in prior academic achievement, grades in the first term of the same subject were used as a covariate, and progress was assessed from the first-term to the second-term evaluations in the experimental and control groups. The results provided robust evidence of the positive impact of continuous assessment on all indices of academic outcomes considered. In addition, responses to a self-report questionnaire revealed that continuous assessment improved students’ satisfaction and was perceived by students as a procedure that promotes deeper learning.