Context Statement

Authentic and industry-relevant assessments challenge students to undertake complex higher-order reasoning and to think independently and creatively. External stakeholders, such
as industry groups and professional bodies, favour universities offering work-relevant experiences. Authentic assessment enhances graduate employability by developing students’ “work-readiness” capabilities and addresses Boud and Falchikov’s (2005) calls for
“sustainable assessment”. For many Finance and Accounting units taught at ACU, the major assessments are either a final exam with problem sets sourced from the textbook instructor resources or an assignment testing knowledge of Finance/Accounting theory instead of real-life applications. This makes the final assessment vulnerable to academic integrity breaches and results in a certain degree of disconnect from industry practice. Finance and Accounting
being highly applied disciplines require more appropriate industry-relevant assessments where students could apply the skills developed in the unit into a practical application. To ensure that academic integrity standards are met and engage students in active learning, I am working on the development of an authentic assessment for BAFN204 – Portfolio Management: Investing Wisely. This is going to be the Case Study Exam. Dr Rajeev Gundur, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of the West Scotland reviewed my case study exam and commented: by using recent case studies, Dr. Kakhkharov creates an exam that not only draws on the real world but is difficult to cheat on. By using a contemporary case study, students cannot copy from previous peers. They must learn the processes required to do the task as the details will change unpredictably from one year to the next.”

Evaluation practices that bring about improvements in teaching and learning

An important aspect of my evaluation practice is industry relevance. Learning through authentic assessments and active learning have emerged as complementary practices to work placements and in response to worldwide pressures to improve graduate employability
(James and Casidy, 2018). It is argued that besides providing the foundation for high academic standards and best practices, authentic assessments and academic integrity enrich students with skills that advance their employability (Sotiriadou, Logan, Daly, & Guest, 2020).
Therefore, I contribute my Finance industry experience and investment professionals’ expertise to enhance assessment and feedback. Garavalia, Marken, and Sommi (2002) question ‘Which assessment method best measures what students should be able to do as a result of instruction?’ The answer to this question guides my choice of assessment methods. For example, since one of the most important learning outcomes of BAFN204 – Portfolio
Management: Investing Wisely is to develop students’ ability to perform security selection and make corresponding investment decisions, together with my Finance discipline colleagues
and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) professionals we decided that a Case Study Exam format was the best way to measure that outcome. The assumption behind this is that instruction reflects the desired learning outcome. Thus, the assessment task matches both
instruction and the stated behaviour in the learning objective.

The Case Study Exam for BAFN204 – Portfolio Management: Investing Wisely is being developed and adapted to the relevant context in consultation with academic colleagues in Finance as well as industry professionals. On Friday, 15 November 2024, I presented the idea,
format, structure, purpose, and outline of the exam at FinEd Forum 2024 at Southern Cross Catholic College in Sydney, NSW. The FinEd Forum was organised by Ecstra Foundation. The purpose of the presentation was to solicit feedback and suggestions from educators and government officials. My former colleague from Flinders University Dr Yalcin commented: “…case study allows students to apply ideas, theories, and concepts to realistic problem-solving situations.” The review of my colleagues helped me to improve the structure and presentation of the exam. During the Case Study Exam, students are given financial statements from a real-world Australian company (Flight Centre) and tasked to value this company using several valuation methodologies and financial ratio analyses covered in the unit. I am also developing answers for the Case Study exam and associated feedback.

I have identified a strong need for students to deal with real-world problem scenarios, therefore I have chosen a problem-based learning strategy. In doing so, it was important to construct highly relevant problems, scaffolding concepts, and skills at increasing levels of difficulty. My design framework (Figure 1) illustrates a matrix for the analysis of considerations in planning the learning tasks and choosing relevant content. This matrix based on the Influencer model (Patterson, et al., 2008) focused our thinking on relevant motivation and skill for each of three areas: individual, social, and professional group influences, and the structural environment (both external to the institution, and the structure of the course materials and support provided by the system and the course facilitator.

Figure 1. Bi-directional Curriculum Design Process

Conclusion

My goal is to provide learning opportunities to people who wish to gain expertise in investment and portfolio management. I expect that using a learner-centered pedagogy will assist students in acquiring technical know-how, but more importantly, challenge them to be reflective thinkers who find adaptive solutions for investment portfolios. There are three key learnings that offer valuable insights for others seeking to develop curricula in a business school context:

1. Educational design for such environments requires an in-depth analysis of the professional context integrated with the affordances of the social and personal context.
2. Networks of understanding will be challenged, and chains of practice will require revision.
3. A substantial amount of planning and preparation must go into the design of curricula (Harrison & Bergen, 2000).

References

Boud, D., & Falchikov, N. (2006). Aligning assessment with long‐term learning. Assessment & evaluation in higher education, 31(4), 399-413.
Garavalia, L. S., Marken, P. A., & Sommi, R. W. (2002). Selecting appropriate assessment methods: Asking the right questions. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 66(2), 108-111.

Harrison, N., & Bergen, C. (2000). Some design strategies for developing an online course. Educational technology, 40(1), 57-60.

James, L. T., and Casidy, R. 2018. “Authentic Assessment in Business Education: its Effects on Student Satisfaction and Promoting Behaviour.” Studies in Higher Education 43 (3): 401–15.

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2007). Influencer: The Power to Change Anything: The Power to Change Anything. McGraw Hill Professional.

Sotiriadou, P., Logan, D., Daly, A., & Guest, R. (2020). The role of authentic assessment to preserve academic integrity and promote skill development and employability. Studies in Higher Education, 45(11), 2132-2148.

Author: Dr. Jak Kakhkharov