Abstract:

Whilst not exactly new in higher education, patchwork text assessment strategy has been introduced into a number of critical care nursing modules. This paper will highlight the benefits of such an assessment strategy as well as some hints and tips for colleagues who may wish to use this form of assessment.

Traditional forms of theoretical academic assessment in critical care modules within higher education institutes (HEI) tend to focus around the essay or examination, and often students focus on passing the module and perhaps ‘play the system’ (Winter, 2003) using surface learning rather than deep, meaningful learning (Biggs, 1999).

Neurosciences is a diverse field of practice and when the student selected a neuroscience topic for their essay, the breadth of the student’s application of neurosurgical care and trauma management knowledge could not be demonstrated as students focussed their essay assignment on a narrow topic area. The assessment strategy was amended 24 months ago to patchwork text, in this way the module attempts to engage the students in demonstrating the application of the breadth of their theoretical knowledge to ensure clinical practice is examined critically.

Patchwork text assessment enables students write small, complete ‘patches’ of assessment, which in themselves are complete and focus of different aspects of the module. The ‘patches’ are structured learning activities that are lecturer led, but the specific topics are student led to ensure the student centredness of the assessment strategy in order to enhance both patient care and personal learning/personal development planning (PDP). This allows individual students to personally engage in their learning (deep) by linking the specific module learning outcomes to the assessment process. The patches are then ‘stitched together’ with a retrospective reflection of the student’s personal learning journey throughout the module.

Student feedback has been more positive since the change in the assessment strategy.

Keywords:

Patchwork text, enhanced learning, assessment.