Student engagement and assessment: the first year experience

Noonan, Elizabeth and O’Neill, Geraldine (2012) Student engagement and assessment: the first year experience. In: The Dynamic Curriculum: shared experiences of ongoing curricular change in higher education, Dublin: Dublin City University.

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Abstract

Studentengagementinthefirstyearofuniversityhasreceivedconsiderableattentionbyhighereducationresearchersandpolicymakersinternationally(Krauseetal2005;Nicol2009).UCD’scurrentStrategicPlanto2014hasprioritisedfosteringearlyandlastingstudentengagement(UCD2010).Arisingfromtheplan,theUniversity’s‘FocusonFirstYear’strategicprojectwasinitiatedandanimportantpartofthisinitiativeincludedafocusonassessmentintheFirstYear(UCDTeachingandLearning,2011).Themainobjectivesofthisactivityweretoevaluatehowfirstyearassessmentpracticesweresupportingstudentengagementandtomakerecommendationsforenhancement.InordertodesignaninstitutionalframeworktoenhanceassessmentintheFirstYear,theoreticaldataandevidenceofcurrentinstitutionalpracticeweregatheredandcriticallyevaluated.Fourspecificmethodologieswereused:acomprehensiveliteraturereview;institutionaldataanalysisofFirstYearassessment;case-‐studiesofinstitutionalpracticeandexpertpractitioneradvice.Thesemethodologiesintegratedevidencefromboththeoryandpractice.BasedonthisevaluationitbecameevidentthatadesignframeworkwouldneedtoincorporateadualfocustoaddressthedesignandoperationalissuesatmodulelevelwhilstalsoprovidingamorestrategicdesignperspectivefromthevantagepointofaSchoolorProgramme.Ninedesignprinciplesemerged:sixmoduleandthreestrategicdesignprinciples.Theseprinciplesweresupplementedbyanextensivesuiteofexpertresources,openlyaccessible,toassistacademicstaffplanningchangestofirstyearassessment(O’Neill&Noonan2011a,2011b;O’Neill,Noonan&Galvin2011).Theframework(ninedesignprinciplesandresources)wasthenusedtodirectenhancementofFirstYearAssessmentredesigninanewimplementationphaseoftheproject(UCDTeachingandLearning,2012).Thedualfocusoftheframeworkprovidedanholisticlenswithwhichtoexamineandidentifydirectionsforenhancementoffirstyearassessmentpracticesbothlocallyandinternationally.

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