UK Centre for Materials Education
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Working with you to enhance the student experience
The difficulty of assessment in applied subjects like materials science and engineering is that, while traditional assessment methods which assess knowledge achievements are still important, such methods fail to assess skills development. Some of these skills such as criticality, creativity and problem solving, are intrinsic to the disciplines, whilst others such as team skills, interpersonal skills and IT skills are much less related to a particular discipline, but are of considerable interest to future employers.
This workshop addressed methods appropriate for both traditional and innovative forms of assessment. The workshop was facilitated by Professor Lewis Elton, the Centre's Thematic Group leader for assessment. Lewis Elton is Professor of Higher Education at University College, London and Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at the University of Surrey. His recent work has included evaluating the Quality Assessment programme for the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and developing a Postgraduate course on 'Ressearch and Development in Higher Education' for experienced academic teachers.
The discussions held during the workshop, and the points raised will feed into a booklet which Lewis is writing as a part of the thematic group series. Meanwhile, Lewis's document 'Traditional Assessment' might be of interest.
