Capturing Progression of Formal Knowledge and Employability Skills by Monitoring Case Discussions in Class

Capturing progression in students' formal knowledge and employability skills is essential in higher education but evokes questions concerning how to assess and monitor progression. While methods for capturing students' formal knowledge progression have traditionally been at the forefront, methods for capturing employability skills have been less researched within higher education. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a method to capture students' progression of formal knowledge and employability skills in higher education. We developed a rubric to monitor case discussions in class and evaluated the rubric by using it while observing case discussions in six professional education programmes involving undergraduate and graduate students. We found that it was possible to capture similar changes in the progression of formal knowledge and skills in all professional programmes. One advantage of using this method is that students can be monitored while they participate in case discussions within their respective curricula.