From fail to first: revising assessment criteria in art and design

This article serves two purposes. First, it explains a review and development process for revising the application of assessment criteria for undergraduate art and design students in the United Kingdom. Second, it makes data generated by the process available for use by others. These data consist of keywords used to locate student learning across the numerical scale of marking typically employed in higher education art and design assessment procedures, and six different ways that this numerical scale has been used. Additionally, student participation in the development process is explained. Discussion about the process acknowledges the emergence of learning, meaning and identity in a social theory of learning, and the importance of assessment literacy in the development of pedagogical intelligence. The article will be of interest to those concerned with the development of assessment criteria in art and design, and how this might be improved through consistent use and formatting of criteria for use in formative and summative feedback mechanisms.