Re-assessment of practical work and Evaluation

An aspect that is very often ignored in the first instance in relation to laboratory and practical work is what happens if students fail the practical component, or cannot undertake some aspect of it through illness or fall behind and need to catch up. In other words what are the arrangements for a re-assessment or re-sit?

Few disciplines want to make provision for undergraduate laboratories during the normal re-sit period in the summer. Will it therefore be necessary for a student who fails the laboratory to repeat the work during the next academic year, whilst interrupting from other components of the programme, (and if so how will this be made absolutely clear to them when they commence the programme)?

Can there be an alternative way of demonstrating achievement of the learning outcomes, for example, by a literature search and essay if that is appropriate? If a student misses two or three weeks of a practical class through illness, will they have demonstrated the learning outcomes through other work, or what alternative arrangements can be made for them to undertake the work, (perhaps joining a second group of students in otherwise free time)?

Evaluation

Practical work should be subject to student evaluation and feedback in the same way as taught material.

Such evaluation may be through a questionnaire administered specifically to address the practical content, a few questions incorporated into a unit questionnaire, or questions within an overall programme questionnaire.