Authentic assessment

Authentic assessment tend to mirror 'real world' activities that help to develop pertinent transferable skills students can apply in  Employment and further study. A problem based learning (PBL) approach can be particularly effective in setting an authentic assessment task. Examples of authentic methods of assessment include a presentation, report or letter designed for an identified target audience. These type of assessments can help students to become adept in a number of areas beyond the mastery of knowledge and understanding of a programme's discipline.

Why is it Important?

Authentic assessment tasks provide opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate key transferable skills associated with the graduate attributes as articulated in the Curriculum Framework. It is important that assessment tasks take a balanced approach to the application of discipline specific knowledge with tasks that will help to develop transferable skills, such as the ability to communicate to a variety of audiences, self-reflect and act on feedback.

Authentic assessment over the programme should be mapped to allow for progression in complexity of the task or the method. This can help to ensure that students are appropriately supported to engage with the assessment task. The purpose of the assessment, including the intended skills students will develop as a result, should be clearly explained to students, as this can help them to understand why it is important for them to engage with assessments that may differ from the more traditional types of assessment and learning experience they are used to.

Authentic assessment also provide the opportunity to involve stakeholders such as employers, alumni and the research community. This can be achieved through, for example, having employers and alumni provide feedback on the design of assessment tasks where appropriate.