Community Based Learning
This page describes an implementation of an assessment method by a lecturer or group of lecturers. The content of the page is the result of an interview conducted through the RAFT project in DIT in the 2013-14 Academic Year.
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Lecturer and Contact Detials
Programme and year on which assessment was offered
- BSc Nutraceuticals in Health and Nutrition, Year 3
- BSc Food Innovation, Year 3
- BSc Environmental Health, Year 3
Description
Hygiene & HACCP Audit of a Food Premises (or part thereof) of your choice.
Why did you use this Assessment?
Multiple reasons including:
- Community based, practical task, requiring assimilation of theory (covered in lectures and published standards), applying it to a specific location and writing it up as an Audit Report with appropriate recommendations.
- Integrates material from multiple modules (Law, micro, business etc)
- Solves all plagiarism related issues as each student identifies their own site in advance , so no two can do same site. (Even when this has happened, I received two different reports).
- Correcting is much more engaging and interesting as each site and report is different.
Why did you change to this form of assessment?
- I have been gradually developing different assessments requiring different levels of auditing skills depending on the proficiency of the group (determined by course and year/level).
- Before that it was a HACCP (Food Safety) study of a product, but the availability of such case studies on web forced me to change or I was going to be awarding marks for downloading.
- To further cement the individualised nature of the work, I am going to experiment with a mini presentation outlining the key findings next time round which opportunity for both the class and myself to question the presenter.
How do you give feedback to students?
- Individual comments on written Audit Reports handed up to me. Both positive and critical comments made. Marking explained in 2-3 lines outlining best and worst aspects of the Report.
- Reports and marking then handed back to students, ideally before end of semester, at worst before exam in that module.
- More dramatic (anonymous) examples of best and worst Auditing practice marked on Assessments and then fed back into the next lecture series as ‘thing to do’/’not to do’. This is now being refined into a FAQ on what to do/not do and examples of what gets best and lowest marks for future use.
What have you found are the advantages of using this form of assessment?
- Student engagement.
- Students like it.
- Reflective comments almost always positive
- Community based, done at home or work out of college time.
- I have never come across an attempted fake or download yet.
- Marking process clarifies areas where students are confused, such as between Statutory Instruments or SI’s and IS’s or National Standards
- Brilliant examples and micro case studies generated which with students permission (only sought after marks returned) may be used for teaching or assessment purposed in future.
- Moves the academic level from factual data to analysing real world environments with all their complications and synthesising appropriate practical recommendations..
What have you found are the dis-advantages of using this form of assessment?
- Some get so enthusiastic they write double the max, compounding the correcting load.
- Requires covering a lot of basic material quickly, early in semester so they have the theory.
- Some students have no experience of working with food or drink and cannot readily come up with a site. We discuss the options available to each individually and look beyond the obvious as long as the principles are being applied.
- Some students shown all info, others given very restricted access, so marking scheme has to be flexible enough to deal with this and to grade the effectiveness of what they did do/had access to.
- Writing an appropriate marking scheme is not easy.
If another lecturer was using this assessment method would you have any tips for them?
- Don’t be afraid to experiment
- Do start with core areas and skills to your module and preferably to the students degree and likely area of future work
- Explain how you are going to mark the assessment in the assessment specification and re-inforce that in lecture time with images and examples. In my case I have to explain that its not how clean or dirty a premises is that matters, its how well they describe what they are finding and the appropriateness of their recommendations.
Do you have any feedback from students about this assessment?
- Yes, many even admit they have enjoyed doing it as it gives them a feel for what they could be doing as a graduate.
- They also like the way it ties together material from different modules.
- Some report difficulties with owners/managers and access to sites and data. I suspect this occurs where the Owner/Manager feel threatened by the student‘s knowledge and is not smart enough to avail of free advice, which by and large is correct.
- Others admit to not being well enough prepared (but it’s a learning exercise, perfection not expected).
- Most say they have learned a lot and have found it a positive and professionally developing experience.
- In some cases, management have adopted the students recommendations and have improved their level of compliance, hygiene and safety as a result.
- Most like the marks they get and the explanation of why they have received those marks. The Assessment marks are invariably higher than the exam marks and last Semester came out mid range in comparison to other modules.
- Low marks are strongly correlated with low attendance.
Additional Comments
- Every time I pass the teaching rooms when exams are in session, there is a horrible atmosphere/vib around.
- With assessment we can do much better. The process also involves students using their soft/broad/ transferrable skills too and marks better reflect what employers want.
- Even the feedback session has a positive buzz and if the marking scheme is at all transparent, students see why they have the grade they have and accept their mark, even if its not the mark they would like.
