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Teaching and Learning: Learning Gain

Measuring student learning gain

Learning gain can be described as the ‘distance  travelled ’ by students during their studies, demonstrable by an improvement in knowledge, skills, work-readiness and personal development. We have participated in the national Learning Gain project, funded by the Office for Students, to draw conclusions on what might be the best combination of methods for measuring learning gain in higher education.

Testing a variety of methods

We have evaluated a variety of methods for the measurement of learning gain:

  • Student attainment data;
  • The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+);
  • The UK Engagement Survey (UKES);
  • The Student Wellbeing Survey (WBS).

Academic staff have engaged with student attainment data through seminars, four Teaching and Learning workshops and our Curriculum Framework conference in January 2018.

Institutional engagement

Academic staff have been able to compare student attainment across different programmes and between student cohorts within programmes. Some Schools have run focus groups to explore possible links between the data and pedagogical practices. One School probed individual module attainment to explain the patterns in their degree course: “This patterning has possibly been caused mainly by dissertation marks (worth 40 credits at Part 3) being arguably lower than they should be… We are therefore planning to introduce additional ‘dissertation preparation’ sessions… We hope that this will improve student performance in the dissertation.”.

The attainment data encourages reflection and internal discussion in Schools on how learning gain can be measured and the value of such information.

Contact Amanda Callaghan (a.callaghan@reading.ac.uk) or Charlotte Ellis  (charlotte.ellis@reading.ac.uk) to find out more about the Learning Gain project.

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Subjects A-B

  • Accounting
  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Architectural Engineering
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biochemistry
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Bioveterinary Sciences
  • Building and Surveying
  • Business and Management

Subjects C-E

  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Classical Studies
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management
  • Consumer Behaviour and Marketing
  • Creative Writing
  • Criminology
  • Drama
  • Ecology
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environment

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  • Film & Television
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Foundation programmes
  • French
  • Geography
  • German
  • Graphic Communication and Design

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  • Healthcare
  • History
  • International Development
  • International Foundation Programme (IFP)
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  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Marketing
  • Mathematics
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  • Microbiology
  • Museum Studies

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  • Nutrition
  • Pharmacology
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate Studies
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Psychology
  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Sociology
  • Spanish
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Surveying and Construction
  • Teaching
  • Theatre & Performance

Subjects U-Z

  • Wildlife Conservation
  • Zoology

We are in the process of finalising our postgraduate taught courses for 2026/27 entry. In the meantime, you can view our 2025/26 courses.

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