Embedding Authenticity in Assessments for Engineering Education

Efforts have been made to adopt authentic assessments in engineering education to boost student engagement and enhance employability skills. However, comprehensive frameworks defining authentic assessment within the context of engineering along with its objectives and implementation strategies remain scarce. The lack of robust conceptual frameworks significantly hinders its widespread adoption by higher education institutions. Consequently, this paper identifies the key characteristics of authentic assessments in engineering education, with objectives to train learners to become reflective and globally conscious graduates who are better prepared for the ever-changing modern workplaces. Additionally, it seeks to enhance student engagement and widen access to engineering education by capitalising on authentic assessments. An overarching conceptual framework for designing authentic assessments is proposed for engineering education by utilising the notion of authenticity in assessments. Moreover, the opportutinites provided by such design in mitigating the potential misuse of generative artificial intelligence in assessment submissions are explored. The framework proposed here allows higher education institutions to effectively adopt authentic assessments in order to train graduates with higher employability skills and address the existing gaps between graduate skills and workplace requirements. Furthermore, utilisation of the proposed framework in assessments helps instil reflective behaviours in students to contribute towards the creation of a fairer and more equitable society.