Future proofing assessment: Using a design thinking approach to embed graduate qualities in a time of change

Abstract

Many universities say they embed employability skills, or “graduate qualities”, in their curricula but the University of Sydney has committed to assessing students’ development of nine graduate qualities to guarantee their achievement and students’ job-readiness. Within the School of Health Sciences at the University, we have taken a design thinking approach to support staff in embedding these graduate qualities in their teaching and learning. A key step in our approach has been to establish a blog with student partners in which they share their interpretations of the value of the graduate qualities for their future careers. From our analysis of key ideas in students’ posts we suggest new types of assessment that will help develop and measure their graduate qualities.