SALT / HEA / Academic Board Seminar
Authentic Assessment – a Public Health
example
Jane Thomas
Higher Education Academy Principal Teaching Fellow
Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellow
Director of SALT (Swansea Academy of Learning & Teaching)
Deputy Head, Learning, Teaching and Professional Issues, College of Human and Health Sciences
What?
Why?
How?
What?
A bespoke product to deliver and assess a
single M level module on Health Protection for
Welsh Government
(prepares senior Public Health officers for engagement
in the event of threats to public health such as
outbreaks of communicable disease or noncommunicable incidents such as radiological or
chemical leaks)
Why?
Demonstrable need
• Seniority and timescale influenced mode of delivery
• Significance and urgency of outcomes drove
assessment
• So…
• One week
• Long teaching days x 4
• Final day – exam OSPE (objective structured
practice exam)
How?
•
Learning outcomes
•
Breadth of content
•
Teaching expertise
•
Assessment of learning – OSPE
OSPE
•
•
•
Single intensive 6 hour exam process
Student concerns = process, resits
Examiner concerns = rigour,
consistency,
range, speed of outcome/feedback
Students
Concerns
• Unknown process
• Fairness
• What it involves
Process
•
Information pack
•
Reading time
•
Timed interventions
•
Media support
Outcome
• Timing
• Feedback
Examiners
Rigour
• Staged process, colour coding of worksheets, recording
Consistency
•
Participation from all, record-keeping, scoring
Range
•Several outbreak options prepared – each to assess the module
learning outcomes and teaching content
Outcome/Feedback
• Tight timescale, individual feedback sheets,
graded score-sheet
Evaluation
•
•
•
•
Student overall
Student specific
Assessors
Sponsors/employers