Development Of Graduate Attributes Research Articles

Evaluation Methods of General Requirements Courses and their Role in Improving Academic Performance and Graduate Attributes Among Taif University Students: Implications for Achieving SDG 4

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the impact of different evaluation methods on academic performance and graduate attributes among Taif University students. Theoretical Framework: The research aligns with the strategic goal of Taif University, represented by the Deanship of Ancillary Studies, to equip graduates with competitive attributes that meet labor market demands through enhanced academic performance. Method: Employing an analytical descriptive approach, the study utilized the Graduate Attribute Scale and analyzed the academic results of a randomly selected sample of 459 students. The participants’ performance in various general requirement courses was assessed across Levels One, Three, Five, Two, Four, and Six during the first semester. Results and Discussion: The findings indicated a significant improvement in students’ academic performance at Level Five compared to Levels One and Three. This improvement was attributed to the diversity in evaluation methods applied. Additionally, graduate attributes demonstrated notable enhancement at Level Six compared to Levels Two and Four, correlating with the varied evaluation strategies implemented in general requirements courses. The study suggests that diversifying assessment approaches can positively influence both academic performance and the development of graduate attributes. Research Implications: These results underscore the importance of implementing varied evaluation methods in university curricula to boost student capabilities and prepare them effectively for professional challenges. Originality/Value: The study contributes to the academic field by providing empirical evidence on the positive role of diverse evaluation methods in enhancing student performance and graduate attributes, offering insights for curriculum designers and policymakers at higher education institutions. This aligns with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, which promotes quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Moving beyond reasonable adjustments: supporting employability through inclusive assessment design

Higher education is moving towards being more inclusive. However, students with disabilities continue to report that their assessment experiences are less than optimal. In these situations, if an assessment format does not enable demonstration of achievement due to aspects irrelevant to the capabilities of interest, then such students are unfairly penalised. In this way, assessment impacts on students’ success at university and beyond. Assessment adjustments are required by law, but are only partially effective since they may impact on assessment validity and hence opportunities for students to accurately represent their learning and achievement. To ensure assessment supports, rather than detracts, from student success and employability, assessment design should be scrutinised in terms of inclusion, with consideration of future potential work environments and graduate attributes. This paper presents an analysis of 2860 assessment adjustments implemented for students with a range of conditions and students’ experiences of adjustments, to highlight possibilities for inclusive assessment design which promote graduate employability. Adjustments relating to exams were most common (71% of students), but group work and oral presentations were also problematic for inclusion. Redesigning exams, including formative opportunities and structures for oral and group tasks, offering flexibility in tasks, and involving students in understanding equivalence across assessment types could improve inclusion. Through supporting students in these ways, assessment design could also incorporate the development of graduate attributes, such as teamwork, global citizenship and communication. This is likely to have a positive impact on students’ success and employability.

The Effect of Gamification Mechanics on User Experiences of AdventureLEARN: A Self-Driven Learning Platform

Structured curriculum in domain-specific knowledge and personal development of graduate attributes are both important components of tertiary education. Prior gamification research in tertiary education has mostly evaluated gamification as a system and largely in structured curriculum-based learning environments. There is insufficient understanding as to how different gamification mechanics affect learning experiences in self-driven personal development areas outside of the structured curriculum. We present a study with 20 tertiary students over seven days with AdventureLEARN, a gamified online platform to engage students in a self-driven journey of continuous personal development alongside their curriculum work. Through an analysis of data collected from experience sampling and focus group discussions, we found that, amongst other findings, gamification mechanics that were meticulously contextualized to specific platform features afforded the most positive experiences across various dimensions, leading to our main insight highlighting the importance of maintaining a co-development process between individual gamification mechanics and platform features.

A Review of Graduate Attributes in the Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Education (OAAAQAE’s) Quality Audit Reports

With the growing importance of the development of graduate attributes (GAs) in higher education, higher education institutions (HEIs) are emphasizing which GAs their graduates attain as part of their mission, vision, and core values, and are required to describe and document how their programs contribute to the development and promotion of those attributes. Qualitative data were collected from 12 quality audit reports from the Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Education (OAAAQA). This paper identifies the OAAAQA’s key areas of interest and their importance in ensuring quality in college-preparedness programs, as well as making recommendations for future audits. The paper seeks to: (1) highlight the most salient issues that have been raised in their reports regarding GAs and (2) make some suggestions so that HEIs in Oman can establish and implement GAs more effectively to meet both the OAAAQA’s expectations and good international practices. Following a data-driven systematic qualitative content analysis (QCA) of the QA reports, four main categories emerged regarding the GAs. Student learning objectives should be aligned with GA development, while stakeholders’ awareness of these attributes should be raised. Additionally, there is a need for an appropriate evaluation mechanism for GAs to be conducted in a systematic and timely manner. Moreover, GAs should be explicitly assessed and benchmarked based on the feedback obtained from relevant stakeholders. Finally, both internal and external stakeholders should be involved in the GA development and review process.

Pandemic-induced course and assessment changes for undergraduate engineering education: The Development of Graduate Attributes

Educators constantly need to make adjustments to their pedagogy and learning activities to reflect the fast changes in society, the economy and industry. This has been clearly demonstrated throughout the world in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic required fully remote delivery of tertiary education. The aim of this study was comparing the experiences and perceptions of tertiary students in a fully online and a blended delivery mode, particularly in response to their laboratory skills and development of graduate attributes. Pedagogical aspects were kept consistent across delivery modes to minimise the differences in learning activities across cohorts. A comparison was made between the 2020 fully online cohort and the 2021 blended delivery cohort. The students were asked about their perceptions of how well they thought the course developed their graduate attributes; how authentic they thought the course was; and how easy the content was to navigate and understand. A mixed methods approach was used, where both quantitative and qualitative data was gathered. The blended delivery mode students appeared to benefit from having a specific reflective task, which allowed them to see their learning in a broader context. The paper discusses the blending and online learning from the students’ perspectives of developing graduate attributes and experiential learning. Specifically, where hands on skills are required, students need further guidance in “learning how to learn” or metacognition. A key challenge for future blended learning is getting the balance right between achieving efficiency in online learning and lack of social and dynamic interactions aspect of the online community.

University-based sport and social clubs and their contribution to the development of graduate attributes

An important measure of the success of a tertiary education programme is the attributes that graduates possess at the completion of their studies. Universities have sought to address this issue by developing formal curriculum and programmes such as internships and work-integrated learning. However, little is known about how university-based extracurricular activities contribute to graduate attributes. The purpose of this study is to explore participation in extracurricular activities from a student perspective. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 student leaders of university-based sporting, social and academic clubs. Data collection and analysis were guided by a qualitative approach to thematic analysis. The findings indicate that students developed a range of graduate attributes in areas such as such as leadership, teamwork, communication and resilience. The theory, communities of practice, is used to interpret the participants’ experiences which was found to coalesce around their social interactions and relations. The study concludes with several recommendations for universities to create greater opportunities for their students to participate in extracurricular activities.

Podcasting urban geographies: examining the utility of student-generated research podcasts for deep learning and education for sustainable development

ABSTRACT Action-oriented pedagogies are becoming an increasingly popular instructional approach within higher education, encouraging students to learn by doing and to actively participate in the construction of knowledge, forming part of learning-centred and research-centred approaches to teaching and learning thought to assist deep learning. Such pedagogies are also critical for attending to broader societal challenges through education for sustainable development (ESD). Despite pedagogical shifts, assessment methods remain largely centred on more traditional written methods such as exams or essays, even though there is a growing recognition of the diversity of learners within higher education institutions, coupled with recent drives for adoption of universal design principles for learning (UDL). Within this context, this paper reports on the use of audio podcasts for assessment in a final year urban geography module. Reflective statements completed by the students were analysed to examine the utility of learner-generated research-based podcasts for learning and assessment in urban geography, focussing on the depth of learning, creativity, and the development of graduate attributes. Podcasts have received little attention as a tool for teaching, learning and assessment within Geography, yet innovations in assessment can enhance the profile and popularity of Geography in higher education and beyond.

Impacts of authentic assessment on the development of graduate attributes

ABSTRACT Authentic assessment activities are those that afford learners opportunities to practice finding solutions to real-world issues and challenges, so that upon graduation they are able to apply these skills to issues and challenges they will face in their workplaces. When learners are able to do this successfully, they are judged as job ready. However, ascertaining the impacts of authentic assessment activities upon the achievement of learning outcomes and the development of desirable graduate attributes is challenging. How can we know for certain that our assessment activities have had the desired impact? A possible pathway is to examine the impacts of authentic assessment activities on the development of graduate attributes. The study reported in this paper offers insights on how, and in which ways, the design of authentic assessment activities in an online professional development program for practitioners influenced the development of generic graduate attributes.

Do Students Develop the Way Universities Say They Do? Staff Perceptions of Student Development Of Graduate Attributes in the Context of a Transnational Partnership in Kazakhstan

There is a crisis in higher education internationally whereby the value of a degree is being called into question. One of the contributing factors to this problem is the growth of the sector internationally. Questions have arisen concerning the quality of provision, especially in the case of courses offered in different contexts as part of transnational partnerships. This research explores the perceptions of staff involved with the delivery of a unique transnational higher education partnership between a Russell Group university in the UK and a new university in Kazakhstan. The research sought to understand whether student development was perceived to be in line with the graduate attributes of the intuitions involved. The research was qualitative, using in depth semi structured interviews with members of faculty involved with the delivery of the foundation course, including administration staff, teachers and managers. Responses from participants indicated that the development of characteristics broadly aligned to those stated in graduate attributes did occur.

Developing facilitation skills amongst undergraduate nursing students to promote dementia awareness with children in a higher education institution (innovative practice).

Final year students on a BSc Hons Nursing programme in Scotland were supported to become Dementia Friends facilitators and develop interactive dementia awareness sessions for children from local schools. The children were invited to indicate phrases and images they associated with 'dementia' at the outset and end of the session. Analysis of the responses suggested that there were positive changes in the children's values and beliefs when thinking about a person living with dementia during the sessions. We suggest that peer learning is a valuable strategy to increase public and professional awareness about dementia and supports the development of graduate attributes.

EMPLOYING MULTIFACETED TEACHING AND LEARNING COMPONENTS TO FOSTER CEAB GRADUATE ATTRIBUTE DEVELOPMENT

ENGG404 Engineering Safety and Risk Management at the University of Alberta was restructured from a traditional lecture format to a blended learning format employing multifaceted teaching and learning components. Key objectives were: to foster Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board Graduate Attribute development, to include the collaborative team project, and to maintain course quality while enabling course management with an enrollment increase to over 1,100 students per academic year. 
 The new course structure focuses on the collaborative team project, as was implemented in Fall 2016. The new structure was observed to have developed student competencies in four Graduate Attributes, maintained course quality, delivered content specific to students’ field-of-study, managed enrollment increases, and improved course quality by maximizing face-to-face student-instructor and peer-to-peer discussions

Work placement reflective assessments and employability enhanced through highlighting graduate attributes.

This study investigated the effect of activities to promote awareness of specific prioritised graduate attributes on the quality of reflection displayed in pharmacy student work-placement reflective blog assessments.The paper focuses on the results from a thematic analysis of reflective writing assisted by NVivo software from a control and research group, using the a priori codes of ‘reflection’ and ‘graduate attributes’, as part of a Participatory Action Research study.The findings show an increase in reflection associated with graduate attributes in the research group compared to the control group. More importantly, there is evidence of an increase in the variety of graduate attributes being discussed by the research group, with the specifically prioritised attributes featuring most frequently. Additionally, the research group were much more likely to explicitly identify the skill or attribute by name.This shows that activities that emphasise graduate attributes within a curriculum in advance of entering an internship or work-placement can help students by providing a focal point to frame their work-placement experiences in their reflective assessments. Students have an increased tendency to frame their placement experiences in terms of graduate attributes, as well as core skills developed in the curriculum. This consequently broadens their reflection and advances their employability, particularly initially securing employment, through improved articulation and evidencing of their transferable skills. It also provides a means of assessing the development of graduate attributes, which is a challenging but necessary academic task in a modern professional curriculum.

Comparing face-to-face and asynchronous online communication as mechanisms for critical reflective dialogue

Two mechanisms for engaging in critical reflective dialogue are discussed and compared: face-to-face meetings and asynchronous online discussion. The context is an umbrella action research project, with over 20 participants, which aimed to improve practices in online teaching and contribute to the development of graduate attributes. The article compares discussion using the two modes (face-to-face and online) of the nature of and development of problem-solving and other graduate attributes. Face-to-face discussion was wide ranging and quite loosely structured, so divergent aspects of a topic were uncovered. The asynchronous nature of online discussion, however, permitted topics to be explored more thoroughly. The two modes worked well in conjunction with one another, if aspects of face-to-face discussion topics were posted online as discussion threads. The asynchronous online discussions then allowed each thread to be explored in depth, so that collective understanding of a given topic could be enhanced.

Supporting Graduate Attribute Development in Introductory Accounting with Student-Generated Screencasts

In recent years educational, industry and government bodies have placed increasing emphasis on the need to better support the development of “soft” skills or graduate attributes within higher education. This paper details the adoption of a student-generated multimedia screencast assignment that was found to address this need. Implemented within a large introductory accounting subject, this optional assignment allowed undergraduate students to design, develop and record a screencast so as to explain a key accounting concept to their peers. This paper reports on the trial, evaluation and redesign of this assignment. Drawing on data from student surveys, practitioner reflections and descriptive analysis of the screencasts themselves, this paper demonstrates the ways that the assignment contributed to the development and expression of a number of graduate attributes. These included the students' skills in multimedia, creativity, teamwork and self-directed learning. Adopting free-to-use software and providing a fun and different way of learning accounting, this novel approach constitutes a sustainable and readily replicable way of supporting graduate attribute development. This paper contributes understandings that will be relevant to both researchers and practitioners.

Using Assessment to Develop Social Responsibility as a Graduate Attribute in Teacher Education

Australian higher education institutions have struggled to develop clear strategies for developing and assessing graduate attributes within their specific disciplinary contexts. Using the example of the graduate attribute of social responsibility, this paper explores the outcomes of using assessment tasks to raise the awareness of development of graduate attributes, while at the same time contextualising their meaning and relevance within pre-service teachers’ immediate lived experiences within the study situation. The data collected were pre- and post-surveys as well as written reflections. The findings indicate that if embedded in an explicit way in assessment tasks that require reflection on the development of social responsibility within practicum experience, the pre-service teachers demonstrate an increased awareness of its relevance to their emerging teaching practice.

Ability of students to recognize the relationship between using mobile apps for learning during fieldwork and the development of graduate attributes

The increasing importance of employability in Higher Education curricula and the prevalence of using mobile devices for field-based learning prompted an investigation into student awareness of the relationship between the use of mobile apps for learning and the development of graduate attributes (GAs) (and the link to employability). The results from post-fieldwork focus groups from four field courses indicated that students could make clear links between the use of a variety of mobile apps and graduate attribute development. The study suggests a number of mobile apps can align simultaneously with more than one graduate attribute. Furthermore, prior experience and the context of use can influence students’ perceptions of an app and its link with different GAs.

Peer assisted learning: teaching dental skills and enhancing graduate attributes.

This study describes a pilot project in which peer assisted learning (PAL) is used to teach dental clinical skills. A cluster randomised controlled trial compared opinions of Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) students from peer-led groups versus staff-led groups in a clinical (impression taking) and a pre-clinical (handpiece skills) task. BDS5 (peer tutors) in their final year delivered teaching to BDS1 (tutees) for each task. Quantitative data from tutees and the peer tutors was gathered from questionnaires, along with open written comments. PAL was well received by both tutees and peer tutors. BDS1 tutees rated BDS5 peer tutors highly for delivery of information, and level of feedback. The tutees considered peer tutors more approachable and less intimidating than staff. Peer tutors reported their own knowledge had increased as a result of teaching. In a summative OSCE (objective structured clinical examination) four months following the teaching, no statistical significant difference between the performance of peer-led and staff-led groups was found at stations related to the subject matter in question. It is argued that PAL, as well as being a useful method of delivering subject-specific teaching, is able to contribute to the development of graduate attributes.

International Practicum: Not just another overseas jaunt--Supporting learning objectives and the development of graduate attributes

The nursing profession faces ongoing challenges related to the globalization of nursing education, research, and practice. An online review of undergraduate nursing course offerings and opportunities demonstrates that universities strive to broaden their nursing experience as part of the education experience. Universities and schools of nursing work hard to offer international practicum to students and there are financial implications and risks associated with overseas travel. A literature search using Library One which includes CINAHL Plus, OVID, ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source, and PubMed demonstrated limited description in the literature on whether or not international nursing practicum placements achieve the learning objectives designated in an undergraduate nursing unit, as well as whether or not these practicums support the development of graduate attributes for nusing students. This discussion paper will be one of the first to fill this identified gap in the literature as a reflection on four overseas placements for undergraduate nursing students and how the placements met the stated learning objectives and desired graduate attributes. The Nurse Academics involved in the international practicums critically reflected on the activities of the students and determine the placements support the intent of the units and they help student nurses develop a cross-cultural and international outlook which underwrites provision of patient- and family-centred care for a multicultural population such as that of Australia.

Evaluation of software tools supporting outcomes-based continuous program improvement processes: Part 2

The Canadian engineering accreditationboard (CEAB) mandate tasked each engineering programto assess student outcomes in the form of graduateattributes and develop a data-informed continuousprogram improvement stemming from those assessments.Administering, collecting and organizing the breadthassessment data is an extensive process, typicallycentralized through the use of software tools such aslearning management systems (LMS), contentmanagement systems (CMS), Assessment Platforms (AP)and Curriculum Planning & Mapping tools. Thesesystems serve a variety of roles, ranging from coursecontent delivery, e-learning, distance education, learningoutcomes assessment, outcomes data management andlearning outcomes analytics. Vendors have beendeveloping various solutions to accommodate the shifttowards outcomes based assessment as part of acontinuous improvement process.This paper will continue where the original paperpresented at CEEA 2013 left off. It will introduce the newclassifications of tools, how well each tool aligns with theEGAD (Engineering Graduate Attribute Development)project 5-step process and compare and contrast softwaretools supporting outcomes based assessment as part of acontinuous improvement process such as Chalk & Wire,Atlas Curriculum Mapping, Entrada, CoursePeer andother systems.

Evaluation of software tools supporting outcomes-based continuous program improvement processes: Part 3

The Canadian engineering accreditationboard (CEAB) mandate tasked each engineering programto assess student outcomes in the form of graduateattributes and develop a data-informed continuousprogram improvement stemming from those assessments.Administering, collecting and organizing the breadthassessment data is an extensive process, typicallycentralized through the use of software tools such aslearning management systems (LMS), contentmanagement systems (CMS), Assessment Platforms (AP)and Curriculum Planning & Mapping tools. Thesesystems serve a variety of roles, ranging from coursecontent delivery, e-learning, distance education, learningoutcomes assessment, outcomes data management andlearning outcomes analytics. Vendors have beendeveloping various solutions to accommodate the shifttowards outcomes based assessment as part of acontinuous improvement process.This paper will continue from the first and secondpapers presented at previous CEEA meetings. It willgauge how well each tool aligns with the EGAD(Engineering Graduate Attribute Development) project 5-step process and compare and contrast software toolssupporting outcomes based assessment as part of acontinuous improvement process.