Evaluation: Outcomes and Assessment
Over the course of this term, both studying on the PgCert and conducting my usual teaching practice, my knowledge of evaluating learning has improved tenfold. Since I began teaching in 2019, Learning Outcomes have been central to my planning and organisation of lessons and workshops. When I think back to those first few lessons that I planned, however, these outcomes were generic and didn’t necessarily link to the students’ unit outcomes.
From Allan Davies’s ‘Outcomes and Assessments’ article, he outlines the following:
There must be relation between the following:
- What a student is expected to do on a programme
- The content of the programme and how it is delivered to support the student to achieve
- The process in which the student’s learning will be assessed
This has since become a framework for me to address where the employability workshops I am embedding into certain courses, fit into their units and overall learning. Through this I have had to become immersed in what practical, creative, and academic outcomes are on the course and then embed the outcomes for my session into this. Before I was doing this, I was acknowledging learning outcomes across multiple lessons, whereas now I am tailoring new outcomes for each lesson I am delivering and am trying to relate this to the overall outcomes for assessment purposes.
As my work is not in any way assessed, I want it to be additional learning that enhances the student experience in a way that they can acknowledge skills, experience, knowledge, and be self-reflective within their assessed work – whether it be a creative piece, or written piece. I think there is a lot of value to be seen in the teaching of how overall learning relates to employability, as students often come to university for the purpose of achieving their dream career. For me, if I am able to be the catalyst for them achieving this dream career in some way through my outcomes, then I have made positive impact.
Currently, the only way my teaching is assessed, is through student feedback forms. Students are encouraged to fill out these short surveys, highlighting the outcomes that they feel they have achieved, and are also encouraged to leave a comment about my delivery. I am very passionate about feedback, not only to feed my ego, but so I am able to understand how to improve my practice. As I work with so many courses, being able to identify areas of improvement for each course allows me to create more bespoke, interesting, and relative workshops for them in the future.