Overview
Continuous Assessment (CA) is an approach to summative assessment that provides opportunities for students to be assessed throughout a module, rather than relying primarily on a single final assessment. It is designed to encourage ongoing engagement, active participation and regular feedback, while supporting a more inclusive and authentic assessment experience. The following guidance documents are available:
Continuous Assessment Guidance: policy and principles
Practical Guide: creating Moodle quiz questions using Copilot
For advice on implementing Continuous Assessment within your module, please contact the CADI team.
Examples of Continuous Assessment may include:
- In-class quizzes and knowledge checks
- Group activities and case-based work
- Mini projects Presentations and demonstrations
- Professional conversations and role plays
- Discussion forum contributions
- Weekly Moodle quizzes
- Portfolio-style assessment activities
Continuous Assessment can be a valuable way of supporting learning, attendance and student engagement when used as part of a balanced assessment strategy.
Good Practice
When implementing Continuous Assessment, module teams should ensure that activities are clearly aligned with module learning outcomes and supported by transparent marking criteria and expectations. Assessment opportunities should be spread appropriately across the term to avoid clustering, with timely and meaningful feedback provided throughout. Activities should also be designed to be inclusive and accessible, taking reasonable adjustments into account from the outset, while avoiding unnecessary workload for both students and staff.
Continuous Assessment Is Optional
Continuous Assessment is an option available to module teams, not a mandatory requirement.
Module teams should decide whether Continuous Assessment is appropriate for their module, learning outcomes and overall assessment strategy. When considering Continuous Assessment, module teams should review the wider assessment diet to ensure that any additional assessment opportunities do not result in overassessment for students. If Continuous Assessment is introduced, it should form part of a coherent assessment design rather than being added to an already congested assessment pattern.
What Are the Benefits?
Continuous Assessment can support regular engagement with module content, encourage attendance and active participation, and provide students with more frequent opportunities for feedback. By reducing reliance on a single high-stakes assessment, it may also help reduce assessment anxiety, while allowing staff to identify learning gaps earlier and provide targeted support. It can also enable a wider range of skills and competencies to be assessed.
However, Continuous Assessment also requires careful planning and ongoing management to ensure workload remains proportionate for both students and staff.
What Does It Mean for Academic Teams?
Choosing to implement Continuous Assessment brings additional operational responsibilities for module teams.
The University guidance makes clear that it is the responsibility of the module team to create and manage the assessment mechanisms used for Continuous Assessment. This may include producing assessment activities, creating quiz questions, setting up Moodle quizzes, preparing worksheets, administering assessments and making resources available to students. Microsoft Co-Pilot can be used to make some of these tasks more straight forward.
Module teams are subject experts and are best placed to determine the quality, appropriateness and alignment of Continuous Assessment activities with module learning outcomes.
Moodle Quizzes and Continuous Assessment
Moodle Quizzes and Continuous Assessment One common approach to Continuous Assessment is the use of regular Moodle quizzes.
For example, students may complete a series of weekly quizzes throughout the teaching period, with only their best attempts counting towards the overall Continuous Assessment mark. The University guidance includes examples such as “best 5 out of 8” quizzes contributing to a portfolio-style assessment.
Where Moodle quizzes are used for Continuous Assessment:
- Quizzes should be designed and managed by the module team.
- Module team should create or source the quiz questions (AI tools can help here).
- Automated marking should be used wherever possible.
- Quizzes are generally intended to be low-stakes and supportive of learning.
- Respondus LockDown Browser should not be used for low-stakes Continuous Assessment activities.
Support Available from CADI
CADI provides guidance and training to help module teams build confidence in creating and managing Continuous Assessment activities. This includes training for:
- Creating Moodle Quizzes (and simple duplication)
- AI-assisted question creation
- Importing questions into Moodle
- Good practice in assessment design
CADI can help colleagues develop the skills required to run Continuous Assessment successfully and sustainably. Training can be requested via the CADI Digital Hornbill pages.
CADI Digital supports institutionally significant, high-stakes online examinations during official assessment periods. However, CADI cannot routinely create questions or build Moodle quizzes for low-stakes Continuous Assessment activities on behalf of academic teams as this workload would quickly become unsustainable.
Using AI to Support Question Creation
Generative AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot can help academics create question sets more efficiently.
The University practical guidance describes how academics can use Copilot to generate multiple-choice questions in AIKEN format, allowing questions to be imported directly into Moodle question banks. Module teams remain responsible for checking the accuracy, quality and suitability of all generated content before use.
This approach can reduce the administrative effort involved in creating question banks while maintaining academic oversight and quality assurance. This guide, helps academics with creating MCQ questions using AI tools.