Having left HCT in the summer the nature of my students and
the motivations for learning has changed.
The vast majority are working students who come to study once a week in
the evenings. They are studying for
professional qualifications to enhance their career prospects. Ireland has been greatly affected by
financial crisis has affected every family in the country. I suppose also a number of students are doing
the qualification for the same reason that I am doing this qualification – to have
a better skill set to do the job that I do at present, and also hopefully
because I want to be as good as I can be at what I do.
Most of my students are now studying professional
qualifications so I and my institution are not in control of the nature of the
summative assessment. An example of this
is the students taking the Post Graduate Diploma in Management, awarded by a UK
body known as the Institute of Commercial Management. Most of the modules are assessed by the
students completing an assignment of about 4000 words. The ICM gives a very clear assignment brief
and grading criteria with each assignment and also enables the students to
access past papers. They also give
general feedback on how students have performed previously so that lecturers
and new students can see what the issues are that need to be watched for.
This all works because the assignments themselves actually
set demanding tasks which clearly set out a level of knowledge and application
in the learning outcomes. The students
can work together in groups to do the preparatory work but must complete the
assignment individually. Students
completing this assignment have an ability to do something meaningful in a real
world setting – its not just about revising for exams.
This is really helpful for me as a teacher because during
the course I can set the students formative tasks throughout the course to give
them the chance to develop the skills they need to have to be successful on the
summative assignment. They buy in to
these tasks because although they realise the task in itself does not count
towards their grade, the relevant skill will do so.
