It is axiomatic to say that assessment drives learning. It has also been reported that students who are given a measure of freedom in determining how to undertake their assessments experience greater levels of motivation, increased satisfaction, and richer learning outcomes. The ultimate expression of these tenets would therefore result in students being given the opportunity to design their own learning experiences set within the context of a particular knowledge domain, something that learning contracts set out to achieve. This paper reports on an evaluation of the effectiveness of such an approach when it was applied to "design and the environment", utilising longitudinal measures of student satisfaction together with an assessment of the impact of the course upon students thinking. It also includes facilitator reflections, thereby completing the stakeholder evaluation, concluding that learning contracts can be an effective approach given careful design and an appropriate context.
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