Case study on client-focused business projects

‘Assimilate’ was a three-year £200,000 National Teaching Fellowship project based at Leeds Metropolitan University, designed to explore innovative assessment at Masters level, offer the sector greater awareness of diverse practice in assessment at taught Masters level, and provide a catalyst for future development of assessment in this much under-researched area. Its rationale was that fit-for-purpose assessment leads to enhanced student learning experiences, i.e. assessment for, not just of, learning (Nicol and
MacFarlane Dick, 2006). Many Masters programmes are professionally orientated or vocational hence the need for a strong focus on authentic assessment, so the project research was designed particularly to benefit programmes for students already working or planning to work in professional fields.

Interviews were undertaken between 2010 and 2012 in the UK and internationally by students and team members to elicit information about diverse approaches and to produce the case studies in this compendium, so as to showcase innovation. The case studies represent snapshots of practice at the time of the interviews, so some changes may have taken place since then. International conversations on Masters level assessment
were undertaken by members of the project team in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Singapore. The compendium includes some overviews, from different nations, of approaches to Masters level assessment.