Search Results

The rush to short courses and use of micro-credentials prompted by responses to the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] pandemic has greatly accelerated a trend already underway. However, few studies have examined the impact of short courses or micro-credentials on skills or employment outcomes, and this hasty move draws attention to major problems in the ways in which higher education credentials - macro and micro - are designed and assessed.

Published abstract. Show less

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is proliferating in university courses across many countries. Like many educational practices, students' experience of it is shaped by the assessment processes adopted. Does assessment support or inhibit what WIL seeks to foster? To explore how students experience assessment in WIL, a small-scale investigation was undertaken across faculties in a UK university. Students who had recently undertaken WIL in contexts where it was either tightly coupled or loosely coupled to their programme of study undertook a drawing-stimulated interview about their placement and the role of assessment within it. A thematic analysis was used to discern key themes in student responses. Key issues identified were the importance of assessment in scaffolding learning, the multiple roles of university and workplace staff in assessment, the extent to which assessment practices promote students seeing themselves as becoming practitioners and the reflexive effects of assessment on learning. The paper discusses the implications of these issues for the design of WIL activities.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Once limited to professional courses, there is an increasing trend for students from all subject areas to undertake work-integrated learning (WIL). WIL is becoming the generic term to describe all forms of placement for credit in higher education courses, no matter what the local or profession-specific name might be. To explore the assessment challenges of WIL, a small-scale investigation was undertaken in a UK university. Students who had recently undertaken placements in tightly coupled and loosely coupled contexts undertook a drawing-stimulated interview about their placement and the role of assessment within it. Thematic analysis was used to discern key themes in student responses. The paper uses the analysis to illustrate problematic issues in assessment in WIL: alignment between learning outcomes and what students gain from the experience; how WIL may or may not be able to accommodate students' needs and interests; how assessment can scaffold student learning; and the role of assessment in students learning to become a practitioner.

Published abstract.

The volume from which this paper is taken is available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 157.501. Show less