Authentic approaches to assessing graduate attributes

Richard Cummings
Murdoch University

Keywords: authentic assessment; graduate attributes

The recent move to develop authentic approaches to assessment particularly for the higher order learning which universities espouse in their graduate attributes may provide useful avenues to the assessment of graduate attributes. This paper reviews the nature of authentic and traditional assessment and graduate attributes, and how the former might be used to assess the latter. Examples of authentic assessment are identified and the extent to which they are used to assess graduate attributes is discussed. This provides a useful basis on which to advise staff on how they might revise their assessment practices to enhance the teaching and learning of the university's graduate attributes.