Examples of authentic assessments in engineering education

Paper-based assessment in engineering education is a widely accepted way of assessing student learning. This type of assessment typically involves answers to discipline specific problems, that may require some use of equations, methods and concepts, and short or long answer to theoretical questions that require a deep conceptual understanding of the topic. It has been reported that assessments that are practice-oriented and have similarities with real-world situations and context, benefits student learning. Such real-world problems are generally termed as- “authentic”. While some disciplines may have difficulties in designing assessments that are practically relevant, the engineering discipline has little problems in handing out high fidelity assessments. This is since engineering curricula worldwide is carefully designed to meet industry demands i.e. create work-ready graduates (WRG). Along with this, the undergraduate engineering program operates within a shorter time frame (usually 3-5 years). Hence, in engineering, most problems are practice oriented. It appears that real-world relevance is only one of the key criteria required when designing authentic assessments and there is an overall misunderstanding of what constitutes an authentic assessment and how to efficiently prepare them. In a rapidly changing higher education sector, an added dimension to authentic assessments is that they must be safeguarded against widespread contract cheating. This paper discusses the essential components of an authentic assessment and provides several examples of such assessments, suitable for undergraduate civil engineering students. More traditional assessments are discussed with developed authentic assessments. Built-in contract cheating safeguarding mechanisms are discussed in some detail.