Examining assessment in the workplace

Workplace learning forms an essential part of many degree programmes yet often it does not receive academic credit in the same way as for the taught elements of the course. We are involved in running science Sandwich degrees in which students are on work placement for one year. Until recently students received no academic credit for the year yet their learning was often at graduate level. The reason why academic credit was not given in the past was because of the diverse nature of the placements for each student and the geographical separation of the students from the home institution which made monitoring learning and assuring equivalence of assessment problematic. We have devised a novel pedagogic methodology to address assessment for the award of credit for placement learning but the necessary complexity of the problem needs an IT solution which we have produced, called Profile.