Evolving assessment strategies in engineering education : perceptions and practices

In the actual learning situation, students develop context specific strategies for learning in response to their own perceptions of the requirements for learning. Among all the contextual factors, assessment has been demonstrated to have a powerful effect on the learning process and is a defining feature of the students' approach to learning. However, assessment in the engineering discipline is typically orientated towards demonstrating competence in specific tasks using only traditional assessment techniques. However, the effectiveness of education programmes is dependent on how well lecturers understand the role of assessment in student learning and how well they are prepared to change their strategy in such a way that they use assessment as a tool for the improvement of student learning.