Assessment, Learning & Teaching Reflections |
Tuesday 15 November
Over the last three years, the Nursing Mental Health and Adult Health team have developed a diagnostic assignment. Prior to this academic year, this consisted of a formative assessment in the first week of the course requiring students to write a 500-word essay, supported by ‘Skills for Learning’ documents, comparing two nursing articles. This was then read by personal tutors, who individually discussed students’ essays with them, identifying strengths and weaknesses, without allocating a mark. This exercise proved extremely valuable in identifying their learning needs early, enabling tutors to advise them about support they can access. This ensured that students were introduced to their personal tutors within the first weeks of their course, thus reducing anonymity. Further, this process allowed students to express their general and academic expectations and they were given practice in writing within a word limit.
For this academic year, this assignment was further enhanced proactively to prevent plagiarism. Instead of comparing two articles, every student was given resources, including web pages and a booklet on plagiarism, then asked to write 500 words on ‘What is plagiarism and how can it be prevented?’ We plan to share learning from our experience more widely through external publication.
Frances Chapman Course Leader BSc (Hons)Nursing-Adult Health
