Work in progress — Challenges in designing an assessment scheme for a diverse cohort of students

Designing an assessment scheme for a diverse cohort of students having different backgrounds and competencies is a challenge in itself. A case study on a course titled “Environmental technology” delivered in the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying at University of Southern Queensland in Australia is an example that depicts this challenge. This paper reports a critical analysis undertaken using the available data to understand the diverse characteristics of the students in terms of their majors and programs, their corresponding performance in the assessment and finally the interpretation of how their performance is related to their majors and programs. Having critically reviewed the existing assessment practices along with the students´ feedback, a new assessment strategy is proposed that can influence the students´ approaches to learning from surface to deep learning and that takes into account the diverse nature of the students.