Tips for Incorporating Authentic Assessment into Health Profession Courses

Student engagement with learning material is significantly affected by if, and how, students will be assessed. Despite the influence of assessment technique on student engagement, traditional methods like multiple-choice question examinations are most common despite known limitations. Authentic assessment, an alternative option, is a method that simulates a real-world scenario or problem encountered in practice where students must demonstrate a task or skill or create a product as a final outcome. Authentic assessment methods are better at evaluating competency or skill attainment compared with traditional methods. This report provides tips and examples for incorporating authentic assessment from beginning to end.