Abstract:

An industry placement programme “offers an unrivalled opportunity for situated learning that academic institutions could not provide” [1]. The MTU School of Business has a 30-credit industry placement elective included in all undergraduate programmes. The module assessment structure is broken down into four areas looking at career preparation, industry supervisor assessment, academic supervisor assessment and reflection.

The key assessment and feedback challenges recognised by a multi-stakeholder group (students, employers and academics) were identified as:
(i) a lack of clarity for employers and expectations on grading;
(ii) timing of assessment;
(iii) lack of structured approach to feedback in addition to proposed solutions [2].

The aim of the paper is to explore the proposed solutions and current literature on assessment and feedback for placement and to discuss the interventions undertaken to address the challenges outlined above. The interventions undertaken include use of enhanced preplacement preparation of employers, interim performance assessment and feedback by employers in conjunction with students’ self-assessment and gap analysis and a more structured and prompted approach for students’ reflections.

The importance of the employer as a key partner in the industry placements partnership is highlighted. The investment to develop that relationship in order to ensure a positive learning experience for the students needs to be recognised and funded. The design of work placement as a learning experience can be enhanced through use of assessment and feedback pedagogies.

References:
[1] Sheridan I, Linehan M. Work Placement in Third-Level Programmes. CIT Press; 2011.
[2] O’Neill G. Solutions and Actions to Work-based Assessment Challenges: Business Information Systems. 2021a.

Keywords:

Placement, Feedback, Self-Evaluation, Authentic, Reflection.