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Assessment Tools

Most educators are aware that there are three different types of learners; (1) Visual, (2) Auditory, and (3) Kinaesthetic and we have been mindful of this in recent years when delivering our lectures and preparing our lecture material. Whilst we have been aware of this when creating learning content and learning objects, educators, and I think, society in general has been more hesitant to create learning assessment pathways and varying education vehicles, outside of the norm for students who are not seen as “traditionally” academic. It is possible that the Quality Assurance systems of learning institutes have hampered this creativity as award standards have to be maintained. I believe that with some outside-the-box thinking we can create assessment methods that address the various kinds of learners whilst also upholding rigorous award standards.

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I also endeavor to create assessments that provide my students with actual learning and outputs that they call apply to the real world - like the example below. The real value and purpose of assessment, I believe, is so that students can learn.

assessment task

Fourth year students in the BSc (Hons) in Quality for Industry were given some data from a cereal processing company and were asked to do the following:

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  1. Use Minitab to statistically analyse the data.

  2. Then using this data, write a Quality report from the perspective of a Quality Engineer working in this production facility.

  3. Upload both the Minitab file and the Word document to Moodle.

assessment correction

  • This assessment was worth 8% of the final grade for this module, Statistics and Expermental Design

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  • The students were given the rubric below as well as the detailed assesment directions so it was clear to them what was expected in this assessment and how it would be graded.

result - assessment output

  • This is an example of one of my student's Quality report.

  • I also collated the best bits from the students' reports and put the "model" report on my Moodle page for this module when the assessment was complete.

  • This was a valuable learning and assessment tool as the students generated skills and knowledge can they can apply directly to process improvement in the workplace.

  • Feedback from students was very positive, they said they felt they were doing an assessment that they really learned from and use in the future, rather than "doing an assessment for assessmnet's sake."

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