Can Intrinsic Graduate Qualities be Developed Through Assessment? Mapping Assessment Practices in IT Degree Programs Concluding remarks
المؤلف:
Sue Gelade & Frank Fursenko
المصدر:
Enhancing Teaching and Learning through Assessment
الجزء والصفحة:
P485-C40
2025-08-30
285
Can Intrinsic Graduate Qualities be Developed Through Assessment? Mapping Assessment Practices in IT Degree Programs
Concluding remarks
In terms of the stated project aims, the research exercise has resulted in a mapping tool that provides a detailed information base about current assessment practices as well as a relatively objective view of those practices in relationship to course objectives and graduate qualities. We do acknowledge that the nature of the mapping may result in dissenting arguments around the apparently arbitrary allocation of process identifiers and assessment relationships to course objectives.
Our research suggests that developing a method of summing up a program's graduate qualities using the indicative unit weightings for courses can be achieved if we can develop an understanding of graduate quality pre-requisites among course developers. This will facilitate the development of graduate qualities in the same manner that course pre-requisites are used to ensure a systematic development of Body of Knowledge and Problem-Solving skills. We believe that this can be achieved through the use of course objectives that are written to explicitly state how graduate qualities will be developed and, which graduate qualities will be reinforced and are therefore assumed. Course objectives must also show a direct relationship to the course developer's allocation of graduate qualities. Our findings suggest that team teaching practices that ensure graduate qualities are developed in a systematic fashion through thoughtful design of assessed tasks need to be used. We also propose the development for assessment marking schemes that give due emphasis to process as well as to outcomes produced by students. These marking schemes must support the learning environment by making the processes that are designed to develop graduate qualities transparent to both students and teaching staff.
A course developer has one reliable tool for developing the Graduate Qualities in students: the assessment tasks. If an assessment task is designed to develop both discipline specific knowledge and graduate qualities, clearly it will demand that students engage with discipline specific knowledge in such a way that the graduate qualities are further developed. Thus, by definition such an assessment must incorporate tasks that challenge a student's graduate qualities and will rightfully make assumptions relating to the student's existing graduate quality maturity. The task of determining the degree to which such assumptions are valid will remain intractable until such time as a suitable method for measuring cumulative graduate qualities is proposed. It would seem that the method of summing up a student's graduate qualities for courses undertaken is a somewhat unreliable approach at this point in time, as there is currently no method of ensuring that graduate quality values per course are accurate.
Our research suggests that the best method of determining international implications for the use of our analytical tool is through a thorough analysis of the assumptions made by course developers. As this analysis requires knowledge of the course content it is an exercise best done by nominated course moderators with specialist knowledge. The task of determining the degree to which such assumptions are valid will remain debatable until a suitable method for measuring cumulative graduate qualities (such as the one we propose based on course objectives) is implemented. Sound team teaching practices can be very effective in dealing with inter-cultured factors especially if the team is culturally diverse. Designing assessment tasks with as much emphasis on process as on outcomes gives students a better understanding of how to develop their learning skills where inter-cultural factors are involved, as they generally are in trans-national delivery of programs. Assessment marking schemes need to support this approach.
The team were not able to ask students in diverse settings about the assignment tasks, and the mapping does not clearly indicate whether the inter-cultural factor of delivery has an impact on students' ability to tackle assessments. However, the mapping does highlight issues of assumed knowledge that may impact more negatively on students overseas than those either onshore or with an Australian schooling or background.
Although this research was undertaken using computer and information science courses, all university courses should be seen as providing a sound basis for the introduction of Graduate Qualities other than 'Body of Knowledge' and 'Problem Solving'. The knowledge economy requires the systematic development of many other qualities that students will need in the real world. The development of this mapping tool provides a valuable means of measuring Graduate Qualities and educational objectives across a wide range of science-based disciplines. The mapping tool also offers a methodology to standardize and implement learning and measurement in e-learning mode.
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