First Year Computing Students' Perceptions of Authenticity in Assessment

The problem of how best to assess student learning is a fundamental one in education. Changes to computer science curricula seek to emphasise teaching practices that promote deep learning through direct, contextual examination of student performance on tasks that resemble those of practitioners, rather than more traditional methods. This kind of "authentic assessment" is becoming more popular as it appears to incorporate employability skills associated with professional practice into the curriculum in a natural way. In this paper, we report on an investigation into how computing students themselves understand the terminology of authentic assessment. We give a brief summary of some of the salient points of the theory before using a simple qualitative methodology to analyse responses from a cohort of first year students on their understanding of the term. We produce a learner characterisation of the concept and compare this to those found in educational models of this assessment approach. We comment on the similarities and differences that emerge and draw inferences about its use and the necessary scaffolding that should accompany it in order for it to be successful.