Confronting the assessment demon : engineering portfolio assessment

It has always been challenging to develop appropriate and effective strategies for assessment of student learning. The move by professional bodies and universities to an outcomes focus has increased the challenge, and placed pressure on many traditional approaches to assessment. Portfolio assessment integrates with Project Based Learning (PBL) stratagems, and has improved student learning assessment in CQU engineering program PBL courses. A course is defined by three key components, which are linked to each other inextricably. The overarching component is the learning outcomes, which the student must demonstrate to succeed in the course. Linked to this is the content, which provides a vehicle for students to achieve the learning outcomes. The final component, and equally important, is assessment, which is the means by which the student demonstrates achievement of the learning outcomes. The linkage of Learning Outcomes and Assessment through content is of paramount importance to the success of any course and ultimately the entire program. The establishment of learning outcomes and the attendant content to enable their achievement is not difficult to achieve, however appropriate assessment is often very difficult to satisfactorily develop. Traditionally, formal examinations provided an assessment mechanism which yielded a quantifiable measure of the student’s performance. Students desire to determine “what will be on the exam” often clouds the learning process, resulting in a superficial learning that is quickly forgotten after the exam is over. Portfolio assessment thrusts the responsibility for the demonstration of the achievement onto students. Students are required to reflect on and ascertain what they need to demonstrate through the learning outcomes. Students are provided with a number of different opportunities for demonstrating the outcomes. These may include , amongst other things, formal skills audits (tests) which focus on specific core knowledge, but should include a need to delve significantly outside this to achieve higher grades. The challenging nature of the self discovery of knowledge and skills needed for that demonstration enhances the outcomes of the learning process for the student. Learning will tend to be broader, more integrated and more meaningful for the student.