Evaluation of “Year 1 Assessment Week” in promoting transferable skills among first year chemical engineering students

The Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus has introduced “Year 1 Assessment Week” to replace the conventional coursework assessment method. During the assessment week, the first year students are required to conduct activities in groups. The activities involve elements of experiment, analysis, interpretation and presentation. This paper evaluates and analyse the impacts of such assessment system in promoting transferable skills among the students. Three stages of reflection (Teaching Activity, Reflecting and Interpreting) were conducted throughout the study. Questionnaires completed by the students, feedback from lecturers and self-observations are taken as the measurement of this study. Based on the results from the questionnaires, it is noted that most of the students agreed or strongly agreed with the transferable skills of “data sorting”, “manipulating and analysing”, “logical reasoning”, “communication”, “creativity and innovation”, “safety and teamwork” and “independent learning” were being applied during the assessment week. However, they were uncertain on how the transferable skills of “working within limited and conflicting data” and “information technology” could be applied in the activities during the assessment week. Most of the lecturers agreed that the students achieved the basic requirements of the assessment and fulfilled the learning outcomes. However, some lecturers found that the presentation and report writing skills were not highlighted during the assessment. In addition, some experienced lecturers reflected critically that the limited materials used in some of the activities had limited the creativity of the students.

► We evaluate the introduction of “Year 1 Assessment Week” in promoting transferable skills among the students.
► Questionnaires which were completed by the students, feedbacks from the lecturers and own observations were used as the evaluation tool.
► The students achieved the basic requirements of the assessment and fulfilled the learning outcomes.
► The presentation and report writing skills were lacking.
► The limited materials used in some of the activities limited the creativity of the students.