Practical Examination

Brosnan, Cody and Dickson (2020) – TU Dubin have developed a listed of seven recommendations for using practical assessments.

1. Identify Relevant Competencies: Conduct a survey involving faculty and external stakeholders to identify and prioritize competencies relevant to graduate needs, including input from accreditation bodies and industry.
2. Design a Competency Roadmap: Create a roadmap outlining milestones for each competency, indicating levels of achievement to guide students through their program.
3. Develop Multiple Learning Tasks: Provide students with various learning opportunities to develop competencies, ensuring tasks address multiple competencies and instructors are adequately trained to instruct students.
4. Use Direct Competencies Assessment Methods: When assessing practical competencies, it’s best to use practical assessment methods rather than written exams, as the latter are not well-suited for evaluating hands-on skills.

5. Authentic Competency Assessment: The assessment should mimic real situations or tasks that the students will encounter after graduation, but in a safe, risk-free environment.
6. Select Appropriate Marking Schemes: Choose suitable marking schemes for competency assessments, considering pass/fail for practical readiness assessments and rubrics or global rating scales for formative or summative assessments.
7. Implement a Competency Passport: Raise student awareness of the importance of competency development by providing each student with a record of their competencies, known as a “Competency Passport,” which documents their achievements in each competency.

Read more about these recommendations: Brosnan, Kathleen; Cody, Dervil; and Dickson, Shannon, “Development of Strategies for the Assessment of Practical Competencies in a Learning Environment” (2020). Practitioner Research Projects. 28. https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=ltcpgdprp