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The purpose of this paper is to examine the utility of a redesigned course assessment in a required, introductory Master of Public Health (MPH) course to demonstrate competency achievement through practical application. School of public health curricula are informed by competency-based education (CBE) to prepare students for the field. This is a challenge in introductory courses as traditional assessments do not translate into practical application of knowledge.

This retrospective post-test-only evaluation examined a practice-based, multi-disciplinary assessment utilized in Fall 2014 (n = 63 students). Web-based surveys were administered three months after the course to participating students (n = 33), the teaching team or teaching teams (n = 7) and organization representatives (n = 3) to evaluate the utility of the assessment. Questions were analyzed descriptively using chi-square tests, where applicable responses were compared across groups.

Results indicate that a practice-based assessment in an introductory MPH course may enhance student learning by fostering deeper appreciation and application of course content while more closely reflecting the collaborative, multi-disciplinary and problem-solving nature of practice. The assessment may also increase the depth of competency achievement and career preparedness.

Institutions that are guided by CBE, train students for multi-disciplinary practice and are impacted by the changing landscape of the field may want to consider course assessments that mimic practice to best prepare students.

Course assessments should be evaluated to ensure they appropriately measure competency achievement. This evaluation provides multiple perspectives on the process and outcome of a practice-based course assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to concentrate on how assessment is used to support the aims of enterprise education leading to recommendations for improvements to the current approach to the assessment of enterprise.

This paper presents a review of entrepreneurship education literature and a qualitative case study conducted on a sample of enterprise educators at University of the West of Scotland. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Paradoxically, the traditional enterprise education paradigm harms that which it attempts to nurture: entrepreneurial thinking and activity. The rationalised approach to education conflicts with the aims of enterprise educators, and there is evidence of a visible and growing disconnect between academia (the theory) and industry (the practice).

The work is limited as it concentrates on a single case study. The qualitative approach focusses on a specific social field and therefore the findings cannot be generalised to other settings. These limitations can be addressed in future research.

This work has resonance for enterprise educators delivering and assessing entrepreneurial learning in an academic setting and will also be of interest to decision makers within this sector concerned with ensuring academic practice remains aligned to policy and industry requirements.

Enterprise education is well researched; however, there is a gap in the area of enterprise assessment which is under researched and not well understood.

This paper aims to report on the first phase of a two‐year project sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries, “Making Library Assessment Work: Practical Approaches for Developing and Sustaining Effective Assessment”.

This paper reports on the project, which is intended to provide libraries with the knowledge and understanding necessary to select and apply appropriate measurement techniques, and to use assessment data in decision making. The focus of this effort is on practical and sustainable approaches to effective assessment. The paper is particularly interested in the successful application of assessment within different organizational cultures and moving library assessment from a project‐based approach to a more programmatic, integrated, and sustainable operation within libraries.

The findings of the study indicate that all the ARL libraries in Phase I are developing a stronger understanding of the value of assessment and library leadership supports this movement. It finds that there are staff in each library who have good research methodology skills, although they may not be involved in assessment efforts. It reveals that areas that did not receive a passing grade in most libraries included resource allocation, sustainability, prioritizing needs, choosing the appropriate assessment method, using data for improvement, and communicating assessment results.

The paper provides useful information on a project intended to help librarians in decision making.

The purpose of this study was to understand student experiences of authentically assessed community partnership projects and reflect on authentic assessment from a social and environmental sustainability perspective.

The authors present an elaborated case study including graduate-level courses at a university in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The authors draw on a thematic analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews and written reflections from 18 students.

Students appreciated the benefits of authentic assessment, such as workplace realism, a greater level of personal investment and opportunities to draw on diverse skills. Teams varied in how they navigated novel challenges and in their ability to develop focused projects capable of affecting change for sustainability. Students considered group work the greatest obstacle to achieving sustainability goals.

The case study provides a novel contribution by exploring in-depth the student experience of authentic assessment activities designed to foster social and environmental sustainability outcomes. The authors provide practical limitations of authentic assessment and discuss tensions between authentic assessment and other education goals.

The purpose of authentic assessment can enrich students with a set of skills that can have a significant impact on their employability. The key aim of these actions is to equip students with the practical skills to be work ready. The focus here is to demonstrate effects on student satisfaction and observations from teaching staff accrued over several semesters in an educational institution after introducing authentic assessments.

This paper used a set of scaffolded authentic assessments for students in logistics and supply chain management (LSCM). A combination of literature and expert input was used to design and implement the authentic assessment. A multi-phase systematic approach using cyclical model steps articulated the course learning outcomes (CLOs).

Reinforced evidence that authentic assessments create options for divergent learners and provide opportunities for applying practical and higher-order cognitive skills in tertiary education system of an emerging economy. With the focus on student ability in doing things, students with diversified backgrounds and abilities in Asia can be encouraged to take an active role in their own learning. The formats of the newly redesigned assessments allow multidimensional cognitive capabilities such as art development (posters and video tasks) and reflective exercises. Importantly, formative types of authentic assessments help to decrease the level of anxiety by emphasising the aspect of doing and lead to better student satisfaction with the courses. All of these effects are shown to be repeatable in an Asian economy.

Authentic assessments prepare students for the new world of work through a more focused scaffolding of their learning.

Stimulation of deeper learning in tertiary education students is relevant for a top performing Asian economy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which student assessments used in two capstone courses in a Master’s in Human Resource Management (HRM) Program were authentic, and encouraged confidence in competencies identified.

A qualitative approach was taken to evaluate the perception of lecturers, clients and students regarding authenticity of assessments and the competencies achieved. The authors used a five-dimensional framework for authentic assessment developed by Gulikers et al. (2004) as a basis for an online survey of the students and focus group, reflection of the client and for self-reporting their reflections.

It was found that the assessments in the two courses were aligned with the five criteria of the framework for defining authentic assessments developed by Gulikers et al. (2004), however, there were challenges noted by the students and clients. Students reported attaining some of the competencies identified in the HRM graduate competency profile but needing reinforcement for more confidence. While the students felt that they benefitted, one major challenge of the authentic assessments was the heavy workload.

Graduate programs in HRM may be producing students without the relevant competencies and the confidence to perform, partly because approaches to teaching and learning and in particular design of assessments may not be sufficiently practical. The findings of this study can provide support for more authentic assessments in professional business education programs.

Few cases studies exist on application of authentic assessments to mastery of competencies in developing countries. This contributes to the discussion on competency-based education and authentic learning, with particular reference to developing country contexts.

This paper aims to present the finding of a practical lab assessment used to evaluate students’ mastery of Ohm’s law. The researchers used an approach combining different instruction types and lab formats to examine whether this combination produced a unique effect on students’ performance. This multifaceted approach provided evidence about how assessment design could affect students’ lab performance. The study also discussed various strategies that could guide instructors and curriculum designers about how to incorporate lab tasks into their curriculum to facilitate students’ mastery of subject content.

This study was a quantitative experiment that used a factorial repeated measures design. The design allowed the researchers to measure participants’ task scores and time across different treatment conditions, hence enabling the effects of lab format and instructional type to be observed. All participants were recruited through the convenience sampling strategy.

The results suggested that there was a statistically significant difference in the time taken to complete the task. However, no statistically significant difference was recorded in the participants’ task scores. Overall, it appeared that participants performed better in the simulation-based labs with expository instructions.

The current study contributes to the body of knowledge on the effect of lab format and instructional type on students’ performance in lab-based assessments. The results presented here may also help instructors to determine the most appropriate form of lab formats and instruction types to be used in an electronics course.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a case study evaluating the revision of the assessment methods of an information literacy module. The revised assessment method took the form of a portfolio.

During 2004, all six credit modules at the University of Teesside had to be reviewed and restructured into ten credit modules. Following Biggs' principles of constructive alignment, the tutors looked at the existing module aims and learning outcomes. A review of the literature and previous experience informed the selection of the new assessment method by portfolio. An evaluation of the assessment method was undertaken after the module had run.

The paper finds that the assessment method had real strengths especially in terms of validity. It was also economical and efficient. Students knew what they were expected to do and where they needed to put in effort.

The assessment by a portfolio method has been carried out once with a relatively small cohort of students, so the findings can only be regarded as interim.

The tutors believe that they have created a very useful module with an aligned assessment method which would be of benefit to a much greater number of students

There is a shortage of publications that report the results of the use of portfolios for the assessment of information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of peer tutoring on the academic achievement, during practical assessments, of the tutors and tutees.

Final year students on an undergraduate Sports Science degree programme provided optional peer tutored practical sessions, once per week (two hours per session) for 12 weeks, for second year students on the same undergraduate programme. Students were then assessed on their ability to demonstrate, coach and explain a range of dynamic resistance exercises.

A one way analysis of variance with Bonferroni post hoc analysis demonstrated a significantly greater academic achievement in the peer tutoring group (73.64±10.26 per cent) compared to students that were not peer tutored (46.20±20.27, p=0.003) and compared to the previous years’ cohort that were not peer tutored (56.83±19.18, p<0.001). Moreover, tutors also demonstrated significantly (p<0.001) higher grades (82.00±11.01 per cent) compared to the students that did not act as peer tutors (64.88±8.82 per cent).

This study demonstrates that peer tutoring during practical sessions in Sports Science programmes can enhance the development of practical skills and achievement of both tutees and tutors during practical assessments.

To the authors knowledge this is the first study to determine the effects of peer tutoring on both the tutors and tutees, in a Sports Science setting.

Library assistants were originally considered to be professional librarians in the making, and were trained accordingly. With the expansion of libraries and librarianship, Britain's “apprenticeship” system of qualification gave way to formal library school education, and a new category of “non‐professional staff” was created, of people who were unwilling or unable to proceed to graduate‐level qualification. The development of non‐professional certificates of competence in the UK is described against parallel developments in the US, Canada and Australia; the COMLA training modules are also examined. The theoretical and practical issues surrounding training are discussed, training schemes and qualifications in the four countries analysed, and the relative merits of in‐house training and external certificate programmes argued.