Real World Application of “Authentic” Themed Meeting Plan Assessment from L4 Module Professional Development in Science (ProDS)

Aims: As part of the Life Sciences curriculum at the University of Westminster, an employability-focused core module (ProDS) was established, which includes an assessment to generate a “Themed Meeting Plan”, where students work in small groups to create a proposal for an event like a scientific conference. This student co-created project is aimed to develop a feedback loop to address whether this assessment provides an authentic learning experience and if a student co-created alumni event can be planned using the assessment brief to enhance employability.

Methods: Phase one (pre-event) includes developing a survey to be deployed to all previous ProDS module students to analyse their perceptions of the “Themed Meeting Plan” assessment. Phase two (event preparation) involves the co-design, co-promotion, and co-delivery of an alumni event for current Biological Sciences students using a similar format to the “Themed Meeting Plan” assessment brief. Phase three (post-event) will be in-depth interviews with student co-creators on their skills analysis and reflections to compare the real-world application to the assessment experience.

Implications/Relevance: The student insights will feed into the module design to modify as appropriate to make it more authentic and relevant to enhancing student learning and employability. Additionally, course leaders can evaluate whether an alumni event is beneficial to students in highlighting different career paths, further studies, or expanding their professional circles by meeting their diverse alumni, sense of belonging, and engagement with the University.