In preparation for the course seminar on Wednesday I read Allan Davies article Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design. What’s the recurring problem?
Alan led UAL’s Centre for Learning & Teaching in Art & Design several years ago and the article below was described as ”offer[ing] a balanced critique of outcomes-based learning and assessment from a position of considerable experience working with art and design HE institutions.”

I was trying to read this while working in the workshop, so was interrupted a lot through the day with student enquiries. However, as this is such horribly dense material, it was actually refreshing to come back to a paragraph I had left, and find I had more understanding once I had returned after a small break doing something irl with a student.

Speaking with Andrew today, we discussed how a lot, if not all the material of the course so far feels very directed towards academics, and it is hard to understand how to apply this to my role as a technician.
I was not sure if I should try to relate it to technical work, or to understand it theoretically as an academic. I have no problem following it theoretically, but I had been struggling to feel motivated as it is all so far from my actual role.

We discussed that though to asses a student, and create learning outcomes doesn’t exists in the same way in our roles, we are constantly assessing students abilities, in as much as “are they capable of doing this on their own?” and guiding them towards objectives – leaving the workshop with a piece of work finished to a professional standard.

See this blog post for a more detailed exploration of this material.