Assessment in a health science programme at a South African university: views and experiences of students

Abstract

The importance of assessments in education cannot be over-emphasised. The reason is that assessments not only promote students' learning but also evaluate students' competencies, particularly in the field of health sciences, such as acupuncture. Therefore, it is crucial for higher education institutions to ensure that assessments in their programmes are valid and reliable. However, there is a distinct lack of research focusing on assessments in acupuncture programmes. This study aimed to explore students' views and experiences of an acupuncture programme at a higher education institution within the South African context. The revised Bloom's Taxonomy was utilised as the theoretical lens to understanding students' views and experiences. A qualitative single case study design was employed in this study. The authors followed a purposive sampling strategy to recruit participants from a public university in South Africa. Ten participants were selected for this study. Thematic analysis was utilised in this study. The results of this study were:Participants stated that it was important to utilise multiple assessment tools for the educational evaluation of the acupuncture program, the frequency and continuity of the assessment motivated learning, each of the assessment tools was valuable and not superior to the other, and the assessment techniques used with the aims of the acupuncture program should be compatible.