Reconstructing a Framework for Criteria-based Assessment and Grading in Architecture Design Studio

AbstractThe design process in architectural studios is based on some small well defined projects during the semester and on the final project at the end which will be defined and in larger scale. Students should finalize their project before the deadline and present it on submission day with proper documentation. During this day they have a chance to see other students’ project and get the comments from peers and experts and finally they will get marked. All the educational systems have some sort of official examination, assessment or grading policy to measure students learning. In a typical policy, students are told clearly about the proposed assessment program and the relative weightings of the various components and they are given timely and helpful feedback after each assessment episode. Internationally, in this decade, universities and educators have become increasingly committed in making assessment and grading more effective in promoting student learning. Appraisal methods and grading systems in studio based educating systems, such as architecture, needs attention and scrutiny more than other majors and fields. Because transmitting the success amount of solving defined problems in design studios to grading symbols are more difficult than multiple choice tests and even open ended questions. The primary interest of this paper is in grading methods that claim to be criteria–based