Factores determinantes de competitividad

Participants typically began assessment decisions by considering the type and range of tasks to achieve their intended learning outcomes. Most courses used a range of different kinds of assessment tasks. Only two courses used a singular form of

assessment; with one using multiple regular short writing tasks and the other a major research project. Both of these courses had convenors who were comparatively inexperienced teachers, although experienced academics and researchers.

Some disciplinary differences in assessment practices emerged, with the main contrasts being the focus on writing and reflections in arts; projects, problem-solving and exams in sciences and some applied disciplines.

 Arts courses typically used essays, tutorial participation and reflections.  Science courses used projects, tutorial participation, regular problem sheets,

laboratory reports, and exams.

 Law, business and environmental sciences used research projects and/or essays, tutorial participation, and some courses in these disciplines used exams. Elaine included an exam in her compulsory law course, and in the business school an exam representing at least 50% of students’ marks was an agreed assessment

The main types of assessment tasks and how participants express their intentions for selecting each are discussed below.

Exams.

Exams were used by eleven participants, mainly in the physical and environmental sciences, and in one course each in law, business, and arts/ languages. The main purposes expressed in both interviews and course documents for using exams were for students to demonstrate the sum of their learning achievements and for verifying students’ individual performance.

Gloria’s innovative biology course used an exam for students to demonstrate their individual learning. However, she believed that the design of the exam was critical for students to show their skills in applying and integrating knowledge, rather than

memorisation.

And I think the exam is an important part. That’s where you can show me that you could put together what you learnt and not just bits and pieces that you can write at home, you can write with someone else. I don’t know if it’s your idea or someone else’s. … I don’t want to pressure them. But this is the real thing; this is where you can show. And it was fantastic. …. I feel it’s important to set an exam where it might be really hard, but I can really see these skills, what level the student reached in these skills. I’m not interested in their memory, in a sense. I’m not really interested in putting an essay in and see how they could memorise the book. … Integrating knowledge, and that’s why I like short answers because then I can really give them the real thing and see how they cope with it. So it has to be aligned, that’s the main thing. (Gloria, INNO3/L3)

Tutorial participation.

Tutorial participation was an assessed component for almost every course, typically to encourage students’ attendance, preparation and participation in discussion and learning activities. In some courses students were also nominated to facilitate tutorials, be

discussion leaders or to make presentations of their essays and project reports, which served as both assessment and learning tasks.

The second element is compulsory seminar participation and attendance and the seminar participation’s worth 10 percent and it’s in two components. The core of

of the semester; students are allocated a week in the first part of the semester and a week in the second part of the semester when they are a discussion leader in seminars. In each seminar class there are set problems and when you’re a discussion leader, you can expect to be called upon by name, by your seminar convenor, to answer questions and lead discussion. So, there are a number of learning outcomes there we’re seeking to encourage or develop, good oral communication skills, but we’re also getting students to actively engage in their seminar work and we ensure that all seminars are lively because there are always students who know that they will have to talk and even when a student is not a discussion leader for a particular week, I think it’s very useful for them to see their peers responding to questions. I think there’s a lot of learning that takes in seeing other students participating in class in that way. (Sarah, LAWS1/L1) In physics, tutorials typically involved problem solving based on problem sheets and sets that were intended to encourage engagement with the course, and were often homework activities for assessment.

I had problem sets each week which were assessable in a very broad way. So, if they basically did the problem set, then I would give them 100 percent, you know, and made a reasonable attempt. I just wanted them to keep them engaged with the material, see if they understood things and then we could discuss these in the tutorials. So, that was my motivation there. (Adam, PHYS1/Hons)

Essays and regular writing tasks.

Half of the participants used essays and writing tasks, primarily to develop students’ skills in writing, analysing and constructing arguments, and research. Most arts courses included essays, where they were a traditional form of assessment. Participants

identified the key goals of an arts degree as learning how to read and how to understand and construct an argument, which are skills that are demonstrated through writing.

Because I think that is the most important thing that they have to be able to do actually in an Arts Degree is to read, and to be able to identify and express an argument, and to write concisely. It's about being focused on the main argument and being able to identify that. So yes these are just skills that I think are

important. (Vanessa, ARTS3/L1)

Essays performed similar purposes in law and environmental sciences to those

course content, develop research and writing skills, and explore issues in their social and political contexts.

Rose and Scott also used research essays in physics to play a broadening role for students to explore their interests beyond the taught course content.

The last thing was 20 percent of their assessment was based on a kind of literature research assignment, which I called a theme essay, but essay appears to have a very constrained meaning to a lot of students in this country, that they think an essay must be arguing something. My main idea with it was to give them the opportunity to find something that they then questioned in themselves, and so, you know, a lot of the students like astrophysics so there’s lots and lots of nuclear astrophysics and particle astrophysics, which I wasn’t going to cover. (Rose, PHYS3/L3)

Projects.

Fourteen participants teaching science, law and business described their assessment tasks as projects. Projects typically involved larger tasks than essays, where students were self-directed in choosing topics and doing their own research, and many required group work. Their intended learning outcomes were expressed as integrating knowledge and skills and solving real world problems, rather than developing an argument.

For the assignment students have to design a monitoring program and consider other factors, and it was a problem that didn't have a neat solution. I gave them an impossible task that the amount of money that they were given as a budget. So, in this case, it was design a computer program to monitor different problems. I said you've got this much money, maybe three-quarters of what they really needed, so they had to compromise to come up with more innovative solutions to the

particular problems. Real world problems. (Ryan, ENVS2/L3)

Thomas used a project assignment in his arts/languages course. Students worked in groups to develop a radio program, which provided a complex task for students to use and demonstrate language, research, team and production skills.

They have to use all these [lectures] as exemplars and create a radio program and in that, they are planning, writing and performing in Spanish. And so they are using another part of the use of the language, which is to work in a group,

organise the work of the group to create collectively something that will be performed in front of the class. (Thomas, ARTS4/L3)

Reflections.

Reflections were used by four participants teaching arts, law and environmental sciences. The key intended learning outcomes were to develop students’ abilities for critical thinking, for learning to learn by understanding more about their learning

approaches, and for making connections about subject matter within and across courses. In arts, Brendan and Vanessa both used a final reflective essay for students to review their learning, and to express it in their own words, rather than in the scholarly language of the literature required in a typical research essay.

The last piece of assessment is another 2000-word essay, but rather than it being a research essay it’s a synoptic essay. It’s a way of looking back at the entire course. I give them a quote or a question and they have got to do the whole thing again. They don’t have to do any research for this. Their universe of discourse is all of the course material, so they only need to use the course material, but it’s their opportunity to take the feedback that we’ve given them in the research essay … and see if they can actually improve. So I think an important part of assessment has got to be reflection and redoing, or else what is the point; they just move on. (Brendan, ENVS4/L1)

Tony made reflection central to the curriculum in both his environmental sciences course in his specialist subject area, and his innovative cross-disciplinary course. His aim was to encourage students to integrate their learning and to develop their abilities for learning to learn. Tony also recognised the need to develop students’ capacities to do reflections.

The reflective learning portfolio is the key assessment item for the course. The portfolio encourages students to reflect on the interconnections between different parts of the course and on what they have learnt from their peers in the tutorial discussions and the briefing sessions. Because it is new for many students, I spend a lot of time modelling reflective practice in the course by summing up at the end of each panel discussion on what I might write in a learning portfolio about that panel. I also encourage students to read the examples on my webpage of learning portfolios from other courses that I teach. Students are also involved in creating