Outcomes-based assessment and learning: Trialling change in a postgraduate civil engineering course

This paper aims to demonstrate how assessment tasks can function within an outcomes-based learning framework to evaluate student attainment of learning outcomes. An outcomes-based learning framework designed to integrate teaching, learning, and assessment activities was developed and implemented in a civil engineering master-level course. The assessment instruments for this course were designed together to form a deliberate, balanced, and practical approach to evaluating student attainment of learning outcomes within the outcomes-based learning initiative. Direct evidence of student learning was derived through analysis of student results in assessment tasks constructively aligned with intended outcomes of learning. Student feedback provided indirect evidence of student attainment of learning outcomes and confirmed the effectiveness of the learning approach implemented in the course under investigation. Results of the direct assessment instruments were, generally, consistent with the student self-perception confirming achievement of learning outcomes. Students tended, however, to overestimate the level of attainment of learning outcomes. Results of the present study are anticipated to assist educators and researchers to efficiently and effectively implement and evaluate outcomes-based learning in higher education thus improving educational quality and student learning.