Practitioners often criticise higher education curricula for the disconnect between theory and practice. I designed this authentic assessment (case studies, team-based assignments, report writing) to 'inoculate' my students with managerial challenges (e.g. conflict management) while connecting theory and practice to resolve these challenges in the real world of work.

Designed to creatively encourage application of course themes and discipline-specific theory and concepts, this task requires students to select a book (from a list of relevant texts) and construct a 1000 word review. Attention should be paid to addressing the effectiveness of various texts to engage complex or abstract ideas.

This assessment piece requires students to prepare a briefing document that targets relevant stakeholders to articulate a clear and compelling case for action in response to an ongoing security crisis.

Students write a 500 word critical reflection on the professional and applied skills learned from undertaking a particular course of study. This is submitted at the end of the teaching period subsequent to weekly in-class worksheets (which students must have completed throughout the semester to be eligible for full marks).

A key aim of science teaching is the development of scientific literacy. In this task, pre-service teachers are asked to demonstrate their scientific literacy in preparation for teaching. The innovation in this task is using GenAI to develop students’ assessment literacy and understanding of the task's requirements.

Designed with an explicit focus on developing students writing capabilities (especially in relation to professional and/or vocational genres), this assessment sees students produce weekly written pieces of varying genres for which they receive qualitative feedback. Students must then choose 4 of these written pieces for revision and inclusion in a summative online portfolioportfolio.

Collectively worth 10%, this assessment replaces tutorial participation marks. It encourages collaborative reflexivity through weekly electronic group journals and peer assessment. In small groups students craft 200-300 word responses to experiential questions, uploading to Blackboard. Suited to introductory/elective courses, this technique focuses on applying foundational disciplinary knowledge to personal experience.

This Oral Exam format (approximately 10 minutes) tests mastery of ideas and texts while building oral presentation skills, especially rhetorical adroitness.

This workbook technique uses progressive learning pedagogies to inform weekly activities that dynamically build on course content. Through formative and summative tasks, students complete one activity per week for the course duration. Feedback is regularly provided for formative tasks to enhance engagement and promote learning outcomes for higher-level summative tasks.

This technique comprises three scaffolded tasks (a discipline-specific essay, contemporary case study presentation and reflection) delivered as part of an holistic pedagogy. These tasks can be administered separately, but are consolidated within this entry as a showcase of a unified approach to assessment in the context of an entire course.