Key Assessment Strategy principles: Holistic design, sequenced and connected, inclusivity embedded, manageable timing and load, opportunities to apply learning, produced for a wider audience, collaboration and feedback, creativity and agency, has value beyond the classroom, dialogue and critical thinking
What is the assessment approach?
In their final year of MEng Civil Engineering, students work in groups on a capstone design project. Design projects are industry-focused, proposed by external collaborators, and require students to complete real-world challenges, such as building a bridge, extending a railway line or renovating a stadium, while paying careful attention to a range of technical requirements and the needs of the client. Each project is authentic and may be planned, ongoing or completed.
During the 40-credit unit, students complete three assessments: a group poster presentation (weighted 10%), the group final report (60%), and an individual technical annex (30%). The aim of poster presentation is for students to share initial ideas for their project and some of the different design choices they are considering. The 40-page group report comprises designs, calculations, 3D renderings, sketches, and Gantt charts, as well as text. Meanwhile, their six-page individual annex asks students to create a more detailed design for part of the project or respond to a hypothetical last-minute change in requirements from the client.
“Say they’re building on a site where an existing structure was demolished. Could they re-use the foundations and improve sustainability? Or one student is building a dam in an earthquake-prone region, and using his individual annex to explore advanced methods that might help him get more accurate seismic results, minimise risks and save on cost.”
– Dimitris Karamitros
How is feedback given?
Scheduled in the early stages of the project, the poster session is an opportunity for each group to gather developmental, formative feedback on their design from external collaborators, peers, and other academics from across the department.
“People walk around meeting different groups, looking at the posters, asking questions and giving feedback. Students get oral feedback from a lot of different sources, a lot of one-on-one discussions: ‘Why did you do this like that? I saw you made an interesting decision. Why don’t you try that in your final design?’ It’s a lovely, interactive process, a celebration of Civil Engineering, and it’s still early on in the project so groups can actually change things.”
– Dimitris Karamitros
Following the poster session, unit director Raffaele De Risi arranges individual meetings with each group to share their collated feedback with them.
Preparing for the poster session also involves peer feedback within groups, as members are required to research different design options, present data and agree on a collective design.
Following the group project submission, a peer assessment form and supervisor feedback are used to moderate marks for each member of group.
How is this approach different? What are some of the design features?
Though based on existing civil engineering initiatives, the projects that students work on are open-ended, with groups free to explore their own solutions to each challenge. Typically, the budget for the project is relaxed to allow more scope for creativity, but other requirements must be followed.
Students are encouraged to learn from previous projects to inform their designs, exploring a broad range of approaches to aspects such as foundations, materials selection, sustainability and risk mitigation.
“They can consult the literature, look at similar projects and go, ‘How was this bridge constructed?’ They would probably try to collect a portfolio of similar structures to get inspiration.”
– Dimitris Karamitros
Students have considerable agency over group formation. Having indicated their first, second, and third choice of project from a list, they are grouped with students with similar interests, with most students getting to work on their first or second choice of project. Groups tend to be diverse in terms of students’ gender and cultural background.
“In Civil Engineering we take pride in having students from diverse backgrounds, with international students from all over the world, and we’re close to top of the sector for women in Engineering.”
– Dimitris Karamitros
Each group is assigned an academic supervisor, whose role is to provide support with technical questions around software as well as advice on group dynamics and collaboration. Support is given during office hours and regular meetings, which take place weekly, and then fortnightly in later stages of the project.
What was the rationale for this approach? What problems or challenges was it trying to address?
“It’s been running smoothly for a long time. We wanted to create something industry-focused and without realising, came up with an assessment that’s integrated, authentic and designed for all.”
– Dimitris Karamitros
The assessment approach has evolved over time to address challenges. For example, the individual annex was introduced, to differentiate students within each group and recognise individual contributions; the poster session was brought forward, to encourage students to begin developing their ideas sooner; and more hourly-paid staff were recruited to provide support. The group of external collaborators also expanded.
“Originally, most project briefs came from academic supervisors, either from their personal connections, consultancies, or whatever, or imaginary projects. Now, they all come from industrial collaborators, so they’re all authentic and accompanied by a substantial amount of real data.”
– Dimitris Karamitros
How does this approach reflect the strategic priorities of Integrated Assessment Design, Designed for All and Authentic Assessment?
Integrated Assessment Design
Each stage of the project is carefully sequenced, offering students a clear sense of how the different assessed components link together, build on and complement each other. The capstone project brings together learning from the whole programme.
“It integrates all aspects of civil engineering they’ve studied. For example, they use their knowledge of structures and geotechnics from Years 1 to 4 to produce a highly detailed structural and geotechnical design.”
– Dimitris Karamitros
Designed for All
Group assessment, including the ability to form groups around shared interests, enables students to focus on what they can contribute and demonstrate their own learning. Having different submission points enables students to minimise stress and manage their workload.
Authentic Assessment
The group design project is a highly authentic form of assessment. Students apply learning from across the programme to address existing contemporary challenges in Civil Engineering, creating initial designs, reports and annexes that mirror the artefacts produced in industry, and receiving feedback from the industry professionals associated with their projects. Students act as genuine insiders in the discipline.
The project is collaborative and purposeful, supported by a process with clear milestones and developmental feedback from multiple sources. Students can exercise their agency in making choices and being creative, both collectively, through the poster and report, and individually through the annex.
