EMPOWERING LEARNERS WITH SELF-SELECTING LEARNING TOOLS

Students need to be encouraged while in the liminal space (i.e. the learning journey in the process of mastering a threshold concept) [1], [2] However, this learning journey can either be a positive/negative experience and the time spent negotiating this space can depend on the learner-educator relationship [3]. Students may also experience increased insecurities and doubts during their learning journey [4]. Therefore, rethinking curriculum design and placing the student at the centre of the design process can be used to invite students to enter liminal spaces and to dampen negative experiences thereof [5]. The development of an effective constructive alignment process can be used in curriculum design such that: (a) students are supported in achieving learning outcomes (LOs) and (b) students are encouraged in linking assessment with learning, thereby showing that assessment can be used to strategically change the way they learn [6], [7]. Effective curriculum design should focus on ‘fitness for purpose’ LOs to provide students with critical key graduate attributes (e.g. high levels of cognitive ability, leadership, entrepreneurial, analytical and critical thinking skills etc.). It should also incentivise students to manage their workload, engage with the module and be supported in a holding environment through the liminal space (until mastery of the threshold concepts is reached), achievable through creative continuous assessment via self-selecting learning tools. This represents a move away from over-assessing students, into more activity-based practice where students learn by doing. It also underpins key graduate attribute development and aligns with the four purposes of assessment as outlined by [8]; certification, student learning, quality assurance and lifelong learning capacity. In this paper, the use of Self-Selecting Learning Resource Assessment Tools as part of the Operations Engineering module curriculum re-design, with the goal of incentivizing students to manage their workload and empower them to achieve the LOs, is described and evaluated.