Authentic assessment design in a highly scaffolded environment
Authentic assessment design in a highly scaffolded environment
Teaching Context
Educator’s name: Dr Charles Sevigny
Subject name: Experimental Physiology (PHYS30009)
Discipline: Physiology
Faculty: Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences
Year level: Year 3 of the Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Biomedicine programs
Class size: 30 students
Mode of delivery: On-campus
Details of Assessment Redesign
Assessment Design
This subject includes the following assessment tasks:
AT1. 10-minute oral presentation of a journal article (individual task, due in Week 3, 10%)
AT2. Literature review (group task, due in Week 4, 10%)
AT3. Final written report (individual task, due during the examination period, 60%)
AT4. Laboratory notebook (individual task, maintained throughout semester, 10%)
AT5. Academic assessed participation and peer-reviewed participation (individual task, assessed throughout semester, 10%)
Aim of the Assessment Design
This elective capstone subject was designed by Dr Charles Sevigny and Arianne Dantas and is offered to students who are interested in becoming career researchers. The underlying pedagogy of this subject is project-based learning, and students work in groups of 10-12 individuals throughout the semester to complete an authentic experimental research project in a highly scaffolded environment.
Featured Assessment Strategies
This subject showcases five of the seven practical strategies for improving assessment design and integrity. More details relating to each of these strategies are provided below.
Incorporate tasks that ask students to demonstrate evaluative judgement
For the oral presentation task (AT1), students are asked to assess each of the journal article presentations given by students within their group. This evaluative task is designed to be equitable as it is guided by a pro forma. The peer-reviewed participation then forms part of AT5.
Design nested or staged assessments
In this subject, the oral presentation of a journal article (AT1) provides a basis for the group literature review task (AT2) which, in turn, provides a basis for the final written report (AT3).
Incorporate more authentic, context-specific or personal assignments
The assessment tasks in this subject have been carefully designed so that students have opportunities to engage in the kinds of documentation and dissemination activities that would authentically occur in the work of a Physiology researcher. For example, the oral presentation of a journal article occurs in students’ project groups (featuring 10-12 students) and is designed to emulate the experience of a journal club or reading group. In addition, the laboratory notebook task is a legally required part of professional experimentation, while the final written report is to be presented in the format of an article to be submitted to the Journal of Physiology.
Incorporate more in-class and group assignments
Two assessment tasks in this subject (i.e., AT1, AT2) have components that are completed in-class. AT2 is also a group assessment task, as is AT3 (although students each submit an individual version of the report). More specifically, for AT1, each member of the group prepares a short oral presentation (8 minutes plus 2 minutes for questions) about a journal article that is relevant to their project and then presents it to their project group. This presentation is assessed by their peers (5%) as well as a member of the teaching team (5%). For AT2, students work in their groups to develop an annotated bibliography of academic literature and identify research gaps that are relevant for their projects. Students complete this task, both inside and outside of class, using a collaborative word processing application (e.g., GoogleDocs). This approach allows all students to contribute to and edit the document.
Incorporate oral interviews to test understanding, and/or application of knowledge
Each students’ oral presentations about a journal article (AT1) are followed by two minutes of question time, where the teacher and fellow students can ask students to elaborate on certain aspects of the article or their interpretations of the findings, etc.
Further Reading
For more information about the design of this subject, please refer to the Course Handbook (here) or pages 335-339 of of Biggs, Tang and Kennedy’s (2022) Teaching for Quality Learning at University (5th Ed) (Ebook available here, staff credentials required).