Abstract:

This paper presents a comparative study of the effect of a variety of assessment strategies used on two groups of students who attempted one of the Malaysian National Subjects, Moral Studies (MPW 2153), at Monash University Sunway campus. The Malaysian National Subjects are compulsory subjects as pre-requisites to the award of a diploma or degree for all private higher educational institutions in Malaysia. Moral Studies is one of the compulsory subjects which all non-muslim Malaysian students have to pass in order graduate from any Malaysian private higher educational institutions. This paper highlights the learning objectives set to achieve and provide an overview of the contents which needs to be covered within a semester. The paper also highlights a variety of progressive informal assessment strategies designed throughout the semester and a formal written examination at the end of the semester used to assess the academic performance of the students.

The learning outcome of students is evaluated at the end of the semester based on a survey Monash Unit evaluation. Five evaluation items in the survey questionnaire form based on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree are used. The five areas covered in the evaluation items are: achievement of the learning objectives, whether the unit is intellectually stimulating, whether the learning resources supported the learning, whether feedback received is useful and on the whole whether the quality of the unit is satisfying.

Analysis of the results of the academic performance shows that students fare better in informal assessment strategies as compared to formal written assessment at the end of the semester. The results of the unit evaluation show that majority of the students consider the learning objectives are met and intelletually stimulating. The results also indicated that the different assessment strategies and activities assist undergraduate students “to think out of the box”, develop higher order critical thinking skills and allow them to be more sensitive individuals towards their own culture and inter-cultural differences and the surrounding environment.

Keywords:

assessment strategies, Malaysian National Subjects, informal assessment, formal assessment, unit evaluation, learning outcome