Events-based authentic assessment that can boost employability

The concept of authentic assessment isn’t new. The onus is on us educators to demonstrate that our teaching (and therefore assessment) builds and tests genuine skills our students will need when they enter employment. The benefits of this are numerous. It prepares and motivates students and reduces the potential for academic misconduct through over-reliance on artificial intelligence (AI).

In the biosciences, our area of specialism, practical classes and objective structured practical exams (OSPEs) play a vital part in the authentic development and assessment of our students, but it’s equally important to facilitate softer skills such as communication, reasoning and negotiation as authentically as possible. Herein lies an opportunity for event-based learning and assessments which we have both used in our practice with large undergraduate classes. 

Event-based assessments are scenarios whereby students engage with others as part of their assignment, either as a one-off or as a series of activities. During them, students discuss or present a topic of interest with each other, academics or anyone else involved in their educational journey. These activities can take many forms (for example a poster symposium or a conference, as we’ll explain later) and can offer a unique opportunity not only to assess knowledge and skills in an authentic setting but also to:

Build authentic skills: students develop skills to present information, either as posters or oral presentations, to negotiate as teams, in group assignments, and to address expert or generalist audiences. These are scenarios that may be more common in employment than exams.

Learn from others: students can engage with other students, or lecturers, they may otherwise only interact with in more formal environments such as lectures or tutorial sessions. This can prompt students to engage with each other more freely and learn both formal and hidden curricular elements. It also offers them novel experiences to engage with potential employers, amateur enthusiasts or the general public.

Develop learning communities: as well as learning opportunities, these event-based exercises can strengthen connections between students, which is important for students’ sense of belonging, retention, attainment and course enjoyment.

Below, we present two examples of how we have used event-based assessments in different UK universities with large first-year cohorts. 

Colin McClure: Queen’s University Belfast’s interdisciplinary poster symposium

I teach an 150-student biodiversity module. Over eight weeks, students must produce an A1-sized poster in groups of four to five based on one of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) issue briefs. During this time, they attend skills-based workshops and identify the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are associated with the issue brief topic (for example, marine plastics) and a relevant mitigation. In parallel, students from the urban planning school (around 30 students) develop individual posters on embedding sustainability into the redevelopment of a local town, and again identify the associated SDGs. 

To enhance SDG understanding and awareness, we held an inter-disciplinary poster symposium whereby students presented their posters to each other and assessed others from their course (using a more detailed rubric) and posters from other courses (using a simplified one). We invited academics and the public to the symposium to offer students the chance to engage with both expert and non-expert audiences. 

Aside from the logistics of organising an appropriate venue (a 350-capacity hall for two hours in this case), academics must identify overlapping principles between the inter-disciplinary assignments, and from this create more detailed (within-school) and general (between-school) assessment rubrics for the event. Further, it is vital to create a marking schedule (i.e. decide who’s marking who), and to explain to students why this activity is important for their development. 

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Becky Lewis: University of East Anglia’s student conference

I organised a large skills-focused module for first-year students across a range of bioscience-aligned courses. The students worked in teams in fortnightly timetabled meetings to produce a literature review in semester one and a PowerPoint presentation and a poster in semester two that presented a solution to some aspect of a particular global challenge.

Each student had the choice to present their PowerPoint presentations with other members of their group in a formal group talk or individually. We scheduled formal group talks in parallel sessions, mimicking the format of an academic research conference. Students presenting posters had to approach an assessor and ask them to mark them to simulate a pitching scenario.

We also welcomed the foundation year cohort to present their projects as posters at this conference, although they were not assessed on this. External guests attended and I encouraged students to network strategically.

Lessons learnt

Events-based assessments can easily snowball into large and complicated ones. For student experience, clarity is key. We have found that students can happily approach any task or situation when they know what to expect. Student anxiety and dissatisfaction often stem from a feeling of uncertainty so being clear on the details will help inspire confidence in your plan. Although this is not advice that we followed, we suggest starting as simply as you can to ensure the format of the conference or symposium is clear to students. Once established, you can build on this.

Bring in colleagues: these events are fun and rewarding to attend, and more colleagues involved means less work for any one individual. It’s a great way to build a greater rapport with your students, too.

Tell students what makes these events authentic: it’s obvious to us, but most students have never attended a symposium or conference and don’t know that this is a part of many professional careers.

Make it special: inviting experts and the public, providing networking opportunities or even just offering tea and coffee can make a world of difference to how students perceive the event. It makes it feel more professional and students will take it more seriously.

Promote reflection: include some elements that get students to gauge each other’s work or reflect on what they’ve heard, as this process will help them reap the rewards. In the poster symposium, Colin’s students peer-marked posters, which encouraged students to critically evaluate the work of others and identify good practices as well as areas for improvement. In Becky’s conference, the students wrote a short reflective piece about their experience afterwards and provided one another peer feedback during the preparatory stages.

Although quite time-intensive to organise, these events-based assessments are rewarding for both staff and students involved. It can provide a sense of importance to students when staff, employers and the public show interest in their work. We both feel it’s worth putting in the time and effort to reap the benefits of these exciting experiences.

Colin McClure is a lecturer (education) at the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. Becky Lewis is a lecturer in evolutionary biology at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia. 

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