Common Impactful Assignment (CIA): An Innovative Approach to Reduce Student Stress in WIL Programmes

Common Impactful Assignment (CIA): An Innovative Approach to Reduce Student Stress in WIL Programmes

연구 분야: Verification

학회: International Conference on Work Integrated Learning

In spite of its advantages, working professionals enrolled in Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) degree or professional certificate programmes frequently express heightened stress and anxiety attributable to the programme's demands. This paper proposes pedagogical enhancements to alleviate stress in working professionals enrolled in WIL programmes while enhancing the quality of learning. The paper proposes three pedagogical approaches collectively known as Common Impactful Assignment(CIA) to enhance the way assignment components of the courses are evaluated. The first concept advocates for a shared common assignment problem statement across multiple courses in a semester. Building on this, the second concept extends the interconnection of courses across different semesters, crafting unified assignment statements that underscore the programme's thematic cohesion. These ideas, tailored for degree programmes, facilitate a broader understanding of the interdependencies between various courses, fostering a comprehensive knowledge base. For more focused and practical-oriented professional certificate programmes, the third concept suggests a project-based common problem statement replacing the entire programme's assignment components. This overarching project, aligned with the programme's central theme, aims to streamline the interconnected nature of courses in such focused programmes. The paper provides sample assignment problem statements for each scenario, outlining their respective benefits and challenges, and discusses appropriate assessment methods. Recognizing the psychological well-being of learners, the paper suggests a methodology for assessing determinants such as stress, anxiety, happiness, and overall well-being. In evaluating WIL students before and after exposure to these new pedagogies, this pre-post assessment method analyses the psychological benefits of innovative teaching approaches.