This presentation from The Hotel School Sydney (THSS), a unique partnership between Southern Cross University (SCU) and Mulpha Australia, examines several activities across three years of the undergraduate program and how the local industry ‘context’ and ‘live’ reporting can be integrated into students’ academic work.
Given that the education industry nexus can be problematic, ensuring that students within a Bachelor of Business in Hotel Management (BBHM) do actively engage within the industry can be difficult and time-consuming. Ensuring that hospitality organisations are available to assist, and then integrating (very!) tight academic calendars and assessment due dates into available timings creates extra work for both industry and educational staff. In many cases, the timings just do not work!
Teaching staff within the BBHM have created a series of activities that ‘force’ students to engage with their intended industry, and conduct ‘close’ fieldwork within their local context.
There are many resources that examine authentic assessment - several are listed below. However, there may be a need to re-examine what we understand to be ‘authentic’ in terms of assessing students.
McArthur, J. (2023). Rethinking Authentic Assessment: Work, well-being, and society. Higher Education, 85: 85–101 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00822-y
Wiggins, G. (2019). "The Case for Authentic Assessment," Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation, vol. 2, article 2.?DOI: https://doi.org/10.7275/ffb1-mm19