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Assignment is an analytical report in education & training as a procedure by which the learners obtain and explain

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Analytical report

Quality can be defined as the characteristics of a function, process, system or object that is fulfilled when compared to predefined goals or standards. However, quality assurance QA can be described as a way to warrant that the predefined standards are met. The two main parts of QA are Internal and External. Internal QA could be Course evaluation, Peer-evaluation or Assessment; however, External QA would be National Standards, e.g. global standards for quality improvement – student’s specifications, Accreditation or Assessment. In order to develop any educational organisation in a systematic and effective way, quality assurance is a first step on the way to quality improvement. Rather than evaluating the level of quality at a fixed point in time, quality improvement is a continuing and dynamic process to review, assess and change to make education better.

To analyse the quality assurance in Dudley College where the author is working, the College has an organisational chart recognising its educational structure, which includes contributed roles being assigned to support quality assurance and improvement. The College is making substantial progress towards embedding its partnership approach to quality assurance and improvement by encouraging, enabling and engaging actively with student comment and involvement. The College is proud of its accomplishments in relation to student involvement in quality assurance and improvement. Dudley College’s activities are value-driven, and it considers the efficiency of its work is noticeable. There is evidence that the students are creating a positive impact on programmes by informal interactions with the staff, but the college acknowledges that it has more work to do to inspire students, mostly part-time students, to contribute informal quality assurance and improvement techniques and creativities (QAA, 2014).

In practical, the quality assurance procedure for HNC construction qualification which is adopted by Dudley College can be summarized as follows: The external examiner (EE) allocation is notified usually by November, then two samples of assignment briefs should be sent to EE for verification purpose. Accordingly, a feedback will be given by the EE so the assignments either can be accepted without revision or improvement could be requested if the assignments are not standardized. Then, the EE will schedule a verification visit to Dudley College which will be held in May, so sampling of learners’ assignment work will be checked. at this stage of quality assurance, the EE will issue an exclusive report which consists of centre details & certification; summary of actions; and detailed comments. [Ref. 5.1]

One of the main requirements of the quality improvement in any educational organisation is self-assessment process which must be efficiently led and managed and should be a vital part  

of the organisation’s management. This needs the establishment of a trust environment in which the members of a provider’s staff are positively self-critical about their performances (LSC, 2005). The Plan–Do–Check–Act cycle is a four-step model for carrying out change.

The assessment in education is a procedure by which the learners obtain and explain the evidences so as for a tutor to evaluate the level of each student, where students are in their knowledge, where they have to be and how might students accomplish it (Gardner, 2012). However, Earl (2012) clarifies assessment of learning as the procedure by which the tutor can evaluate the student’s learning level and to recognise stages to overcome any learning difficulty. The author as a teacher in Dudley College believes that his responsibility extends to assessing the learning competence of each student so would be able to identify any student who has a lack of ability to copy with their colleagues and has to be inspired. Therefore, extra time and measures which are needed to support such students to overcome their difficulties. Brookfield’s four lenses model, is one of the main theory that is adopted by the author because it gives the opportunity to explore different viewpoints and perspectives.  

Brookfield suggests that the goal of the critically reflective teacher is to gain awareness of their practice from as many different viewpoints as possible − their own, their students, their peers and through engagement with theoretical literature (Cambridge-community, 2018). [Ref. 5.2]

Dudley College of Technology holds meetings as part of its organizational strategy to sustain, improve, recognize and evaluate the educational principles and standards that can support students in learning the college’s curriculum. Several organizational policies have been created by the college to identify and implement the numerous standards of teaching and learning in different departments within the college. For example, the author involves in most standardization meetings which aim to verify the learning standards, such as assignment briefs, learners’ assignment work verification, and staff members’ feedback verification. All these verification measures would provide consistency and improvement in the existing curriculum.

From the author’s point of view, the Donald L Kirkpatrick (1984) model of evaluation, as shown in Figure 3, is very useful and therefore is being used to evaluate his teaching practice. For

example, model encourages the author to evaluate learning on four levels:

Reaction – did the learners enjoy the training/course/unit; Learning – did they pass the assessment/assignment; Behaviour – do they work better; Results – did teaching metrics improve?. Therefore, the important thing is to measure at all four levels so the author can see exactly how each stage of the learning design was effective. [Ref. 5.3]

Although Dudley College has been used several strategies in increasing and boosting the learning and teaching experience of the staff members, such as training and observing through triangle cooperative scheme, however, there are still some areas to be improved and progressed. Accordingly, the author as a teacher in construction department tries to extend his responsibility in designing a proficient education plan that would influence the college’s quality improvement. The teaching environment in construction course has been enhanced by using technological support such as a mixed virtual-augmented reality which provides a wider knowledge and experience to all students with different levels of learning abilities (differentiation). Such an approach to teaching has been evaluated and it has been recognized that the outcomes and achievements of HNC learners have increased. In addition, a very positive feedback has been given by all the learners who believe that their skills, knowledge, and experiences have been enhanced and there are significant improvements in their learning skills. Furthermore, the outstanding teaching and facilities in Dudley College satisfied the needs of every individual student within the college. With the support of the college staff, it would be easy to assess all students’ behavioural characteristics and determine what learning strategy has to be applied to their course for either long-term or short-term, etc. [Ref. 5.4]

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