Design of an Innovative Assessment Instrument Integrating Service-Learning Malaysia University for Society Approach for Engineers in Society Course during Covid19 Pandemic

Abstract

Service-Learning Malaysia-University for Society (SULAM) has served as a learning experience in Malaysia for the past few years, merging theories and practices to expose students to real-world community problems. SULAM was developed as a cutting-edge teaching and learning technique in Malaysia's higher education institutions (HEIs). Alternative assessment is one of the instruments for evaluating students' work in a real-world environment. It can also help students develop their higher-order thinking skills (HOTs), particularly at engineering HEIs. However, there is a dearth of research on SULAM in engineering programmes, particularly in terms of the assessment instruments utilised in achieving the essential skill sets for societal well-being. This study improves on the ordinary way of assessment by creating a unique alternative assessment instrument for the Engineers in Society (EIS) course integrated with SULAM (EIS-SULAM) to analyse the expected outcomes and evaluate its success. The EIS-SULAM course and its curricula were assessed in this study through document analysis and the creation of an assessment instrument by subject matter experts. The assessment instrument was used by 415 respondents utilising a purposive sampling of civil engineering students taking the EIS-SULAM course during the February–July 2020 semester (starting of Covid19 Pandemic) to determine its usefulness in measuring students' skill sets. The students submitted 90 projects using the Google Classroom platform and were assessed by three (3) lecturers using a syndicated marking method to assure fairness and uniformity in the report's marking. The results show that the student's grades are distributed normally, with around 20% of the 415 students receiving A+, A, and A- grades, 70% receiving B+, B, and B- grades, and 10% receiving C+ and C grades. Overall, all students met the 50% cut-off mark for the EIS-SULAM course, which satisfies the EAC Standard 2020 criterion. It is envisaged that the findings of this study will be used to improve engineering assessment instruments to increase societal well-being.