Using authentic assessment in satisfying CEAB's new graduate attributes accreditation criteria

Abstract

“CEAB 2014” affects student assessment methods. There is a risk of an increased workload, as assessing for grading in a course and for the possession of attributes are “distinct matters”. Here is a rationale for assessment of learning outcomes, with an overview of methods and issues to consider when designing and using assessment of attributes in relation to CEAB’s accreditation criteria. To increase their performance, students need ‘educative assessments’, anchored in authentic tasks and with feedback usable to improve performance. At École Polytechnique de Montréal, a committee studies this issue, in both project modules and internships. The initiative aims to give students a more active role, engaging them in deep experiential learning. It faces the challenge to recommend effective and reliable assessment methods for student grading, also meeting the new requirements of CEAB with current resources. Association with other Canadian institutions is sought to continue the discussion.

Approaches to Graduate Attributes and Continual Improvement Processes in Faculties of Engineering Across Canada: A Narrative Review of the Literature

“…Authors brought forth two points in regard to assessment challenges. First, the complexity of assessing graduate attributes, particularly the soft skills, called for authentic measures (open-ended tasks that typify the professional setting), versus traditional measures (such as exams and assignments the emphasize information recall, which are more suited to the hard attributes) [46,47]. Second, authentic assessment required good tools, particularly rubrics.…”

“…Authentic assessments have students working and thinking like engineers, encountering ill-defined problems and drawing upon their knowledge, skills, and attitudes [46,47,48]. As compared to typical assignments, authentic tasks, such as projects, give students autonomy and choice as they identify and research problems with more than one reasonable answer [48].…”

“…For instructors, marking authentic assessments requires substantial time and effort, which necessitates the development of high quality assessment tools, in most cases, rubrics [51,52]. Rubrics are well suited to authentic assessment, because they distinguish levels of proficiency and provide more valuable feedback to students as compared to marks alone [46]. There is an optimal level of descriptiveness within rubrics-enough so that different evaluators can provide similar evaluations, but not so detailed as to be overwhelming [53].…”

Mapping the Relationship Between the CDIO Syllabus and the CEAB Graduate Attributes

“…The changes in CEAB requirements have lead to multiple recent efforts to apply mappings of CDIO or other detailed outcomes to meet CEAB graduate attributes Frank et al, 2011aFrank et al, , 2011bKozanitis & Cloutier, 2011;Platanitis & Pop-Iliev, 2011). Brennan, Hugo, and Rosehart (in press) have used the present mapping in a case study applying this approach to their program.…”

CELBEST Project: Design and Implementation of the First Engineering Education-specific Assessment Tool for Professional Communicative Competence

“…Case in point, the literature on 'graduate attributes' in general, and 'professional skills', including 'communication skills', in particular, has burgeoned in recent years [e.g. 34,[35][36][37][38][39][40]. To date, however, no comprehensive and viable solution has been identified to the problem of inadequate communication skills in students' pre-graduation employment.…”