Scientia Education Academy Lecture - Dr Luke Hunter (31 May 2018)

How do we know what our students know? The benefits of a hurdle-based approach to learning and assessment

There’s a problem with the way we assess our students. We don’t know what they know.

If the only requirement to pass a course is to get 50% of the total marks, then it’s possible for a student to pass a course with zero knowledge of some parts of the syllabus, by getting enough marks in other parts. Worse, there’s no consistency in learning outcomes from one student to another. This causes flow-on issues in higher year courses (because we need to re-teach everything) and in the workforce (because we can’t guarantee what our graduates actually know).

To address these problems, the UNSW School of Chemistry is pioneering a radically new model of teaching and assessment. In the new model, students earn a series of “badges,” or micro-credentials, covering both laboratory skills and theory knowledge. By designating some of these badges as being essential for a pass, we can for the first time mandate a consistent minimum package of skills and knowledge that all of our graduates possess.

In this talk, Dr Hunter shared the findings of trialling the model, including its impact and benefits for both students and educators. He explored why this model can be a step towards giving all UNSW Science students a personalised, Program-wide ePortfolio of their skills and knowledge.