Engaging Students to Transform a 3rd Year Practical Assessment

Cooper, Darren ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3336-1964, Iles, Declan, Hickman, David and Holland, Christopher (2019) Engaging Students to Transform a 3rd Year Practical Assessment. In: Learning and Teaching Conference 2019: Learning in Partnership, 12th - 13th June 2019, University of Worcester. (Unpublished)

Abstract

When a practical examination has a clear and extensive list of competences to cover, the format of the assessment can often be a little ‘unimaginative’ in an attempt to optimise the outcome, however, this can sometimes have a deleterious overall impact. Unfortunately, this was demonstrated within a 3rd year assessment item during the 2017/18 academic year with ~80% fail rate. As a result the Sports Therapy team needed to make radical changes within the confines of the competences, to transform the assessment item, whilst maintaining/raising standards. The assessment has been directly linked with tangible employability benefits and as such its worth extends well beyond the module.
Engaging with students in a reflective manner post assessment, alongside a review of the video recordings from the assessments led to a number of changes that met with student approval for the following academic year.
The interventions had an immediate transformative effect on the outcome (the pass rate more than tripled), the student’s perceptions of the examination were changed and students were given feedback about a variety of other aspects that previously were not possible, to help improve their professional practice. It is also anticipated that there will be further long-term improvements as the intervention has pre-prepared the following cohort and adjusted their perceptions and expectations well in advance.
The presentation will document the process, the intervention and the potential implications for other practical examinations, presentations and group projects.

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