Alignment of Course Contents and Student Assessment with Course and Programme Outcomes – A Mathematical Approach

Figures & data

Figure 1 Conceptual model linking CCU and SAU to CO and PO with feedback links indicated.

Table 1 Estimation of emphasis of CO in delivered CCU.

CO number	Intended emphasis of CO by design		Delivered emphasis of CO in CCU
		Lectures		Tutorials		Lectures + tutorials^Footnoteb
Weight^Footnotea	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Percent	Weight^Footnotea
CO-1	4	28.6	10	22.2	3	37.5	25.3	3.5
CO-2	4	28.6	15	33.3	3	37.5	34.2	4.8
CO-3	3	21.4	10	22.2	1	12.5	20.3	2.8
CO-4	2	14.3	10	22.2	1	12.5	20.3	2.8
CO-5	1	7.1	0	0.0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Totals	14	100	45	100	8	100	100	14

a Scale: 1 = low emphasis; 2 = moderate emphasis; 3 = high emphasis; 4 = maximum emphasis.

b To add lectures and tutorials, the weight assigned to lectures was 0.8 and the weight assigned to tutorials was 0.2. Tutorials in this case were conducted by a teaching assistant outside the official class time. In-class tutorials however were considered and weighted as normal lectures.

Table 2 Estimation of the level of emphasis of CO in delivered CCU.

CO number	Intended emphasis of CO by design^a	Delivered emphasis of CO in CCU		ICCU-CO based on instructor’s estimate		ICCU-CO based on students’ estimate		Instructor versus students estimate^Footnotec
		Instructor Estimate^Footnotea	Students Estimate	ICCU-CO^b	Comment^Footnoteb	ICCU-CO^b	Comment^Footnoteb
CO-1	4	3.5	3.4	0.9	Aligned	0.9	Aligned	Agreement
CO-2	4	4.8	3.9	1.2	Not aligned	1.0	Aligned	Disagreement
CO-3	3	2.8	3.1	0.9	Aligned	1.0	Aligned	Agreement
CO-4	2	2.8	2.1	1.4	Not aligned	1.1	Aligned	Disagreement
CO-4	1	0.0	1.5	0.0	Not covered	1.5	Not aligned	Disagreement

a See footnote to Table 1.

b Aligned if 0.85 ≤ I_CCU-CO ≤ 1.15.

c Agreement if ΔI_CCU-CO < 0.2.

Table 3 Estimation of emphasis of PO in delivered CCU.

CO number	Intended emphasis of CO	Weights of CO–PO links^Footnotea					PO number	Intended emphasis of PO^Footnoteb	Delivered emphasis of PO in CCU^Footnoteb
		PO-1	PO-2	PO-3	PO-4	PO-5			Instructor’s estimate	Students’ estimate
CO-1	4	1	2	—	—	3	PO-1	2.2	2.0	2.1
CO-2	4	—	—	2	2	3	PO-2	2.0	2.1	1.8
CO-3	3	2	—	2	—	—	PO-3	4.0	4.7	4.1
CO-4	2	—	1	2	—	—	PO-4	1.6	1.4	1.9
CO-5	1	—	—	—	1	1	PO-5	4.2	3.8	4.1

Scale: 1 = low level of emphasis; 2 = medium level of emphasis; 3 = maximum level of emphasis.

Emphasis of PO-1 in CCU = (weight of CO-i – PO-1)(emphasis of CO-i in CCU)/ (weight of CO-i – PO-i link).

Table 4 Estimation of the level of emphasis of PO in delivered CCU.

PO number	Intended emphasis of PO in CCU^Footnotea	Delivered emphasis of PO in CCU^Footnotea		ICCU-PO based on instructor’s estimate		ICCU-PO based on students’ estimate		Instructor versus students estimate^Footnotec
		Instructor estimate	Students estimate	ICCU-PO	Comment^Footnoteb	ICCU-PO	Comment^Footnoteb
PO-1	2.2	2.0	2.1	0.9	Aligned	1.0	Aligned	Agreement
PO-2	2.0	2.1	1.8	1.1	Aligned	0.9	Aligned	Agreement
PO-3	4.0	4.7	4.1	1.2	Not aligned	1.0	Aligned	Disagreement
PO-4	1.6	1.4	1.9	0.8	Not aligned	1.1	Aligned	Disagreement
PO-5	4.2	3.8	4.1	0.9	Aligned	1.0	Aligned	Agreement

a See footnote to Table 3.

b Aligned if 0.85 ≤ I_CCU-PO ≤ 1.15.

c Agreement if ΔI_CCU-PO < 0.2.

Table 5 Estimation of emphasis of CO in delivered SAU.

CO number	Intended emphasis of CO by design		Delivered emphasis of CO in SAU
			Exams	Other SAU	Exams and other SAU
Weight	Percent	Assigned grades (%)	Assigned grades (%)	Weight^Footnotea	Percent^Footnoteb
CO-1	4	28.6	25.0	35.0	3.9	28.0
CO-2	4	28.6	40.0	25.0	5.0	35.5
CO-3	3	21.4	25.0	30.0	3.7	26.5
CO-4	2	14.3	10.0	10.0	1.4	10.0
CO-5	1	7.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Totals	14	100	100	100	14	100

a Scale: 1 = low emphasis; 2 = moderate emphasis; 3 = high emphasis; 4 = maximum emphasis.

b To add grades of exams and other SAU, the weight assigned to exams was 0.7 and the weight assigned to other SAU was 0.3. The weights were based on the grades allocated to exams (70% of the total) and other assessment items (30% of the total).

Table 6 Estimation of the level of emphasis of CO in delivered SAU.

CO number	Intended emphasis of CO by design	Delivered emphasis of CO in SAU		ISAU-CO based on instructor’s estimate		ISAU-CO based on students’ estimate		Instructor versus students estimate^Footnotec
		Instructor estimate^Footnotea	Students estimate	ISAU-CO ^b	Comment^Footnoteb	ISAU-CO ^b	Comment^Footnoteb
CO-1	4	3.9	4.1	1.0	Aligned	1.0	Aligned	Agreement
CO-2	4	5.0	3.8	1.2	Not aligned	1.0	Aligned	Disagreement
CO-3	3	3.7	4.2	1.2	Not aligned	1.4	Not aligned	Agreement
CO-4	2	1.4	1.6	0.7	Not aligned	0.8	Not aligned	Agreement
CO-4	1	0.0	0.3	0.0	Not assessed	0.3	Not aligned	Disagreement

a See footnote to Table 5.

b Aligned if 0.85 ≤ I_SAU-CO ≤ 1.15.

c Agreement if ΔI_SAU-CO < 0.2.

Table 7 Estimation of the level of emphasis of PO in delivered SAU.

PO number	Intended emphasis of PO^Footnotea	Delivered emphasis of PO in SAU^Footnoteb		ISAU-PO based on instructor’s estimate		ISAU-PO based on students’ estimate		Instructor versus students estimate^Footnotec
		Instructor estimate	Students estimate	ISAU-PO	Comment^Footnoteb	ISAU-PO	Comment^Footnoteb
PO-1	2.2	2.5	2.8	1.2	Not aligned	1.3	Not aligned	Agreement
PO-2	2.0	1.8	1.9	0.9	Aligned	1.0	Aligned	Agreement
PO-3	4.0	4.2	4.3	1.1	Aligned	1.1	Aligned	Agreement
PO-4	1.6	1.4	1.2	0.9	Aligned	0.8	Not aligned	Agreement
PO-5	4.2	4.1	3.8	1.0	Aligned	0.9	Aligned	Agreement

a See footnote to Table 3.

b Aligned if 0.85 ≤ I_SAU-PO ≤ 1.15.

c Agreement if ΔI_SAU-PO < 0.2.

Table 8 Alignment of delivered SAU with CCU.

Alignment of ISAU-CO and ICCU-CO					Alignment of ISAU-PO and ICCU-PO
CO number	ICCU-CO^Footnotea	ISAU-CO^a	ISAU-CO/ICCU-CO	Comment^Footnoteb	PO No.	ICCU-PO^a	ISAU-PO^a	ISAU-PO/ICCU-PO	Comment^Footnoteb
CO-1	0.9	1.0	1.1	Aligned	PO-1	0.9	1.2	1.2	Not aligned
CO-2	1.2	1.2	1.0	Aligned	PO-2	1.1	0.9	0.8	Not aligned
CO-3	0.9	1.2	1.3	Not aligned	PO-3	1.2	1.1	0.9	Aligned
CO-4	1.4	0.7	0.5	Not aligned	PO-4	0.8	0.9	1.0	Aligned
CO-5	0.0	0.0	0.0	Not addressed	PO-5	0.9	1.0	1.1	Aligned

a See footnotes to Tables 6 and 7.

b Aligned if 0.85 ≤ I_SAU-CO/I_CCU-CO or I_SAU-PO/I_CCU-PO ≤ 1.15.

Table 9 Average performance of students on each CO as indicated by earned grades.

CO number	Delivered emphasis of CO in SAU^a	Simple approach			Elaborate approach
		Exams (%)	Other SAU (%)	Overall		Exams (%)	Other SAU (%)	Overall
				Percent	Weight^Footnoteb	Percent	Weight^Footnoteb
CO-1	3.9	83.0	91.0	85.4	3.3	72.0	91.4	77.8	3.1
CO-2	5.0	83.0	91.0	85.4	4.2	97.5	96.0	97.1	4.8
CO-3	3.7	83.0	91.0	85.4	3.2	76.0	86.7	79.2	2.9
CO-4	1.4	83.0	91.0	85.4	1.2	70.0	90.0	76.0	1.1
CO-5	0.0		Not assessed		Not assessed

a Delivered emphasis of CO in SAU (from Table 5).

b Weight = overall (%).

Table 10 Relative achievement of CO based on student performance.

CO number	Intended emphasis of CO	Simple approach			Elaborate approach
		Weight^Footnotea	ISP-CO ^Footnoteb	Comment^Footnotec	Weight^Footnotea	ISP-CO ^b	Comment^Footnotec
CO-1	4.0	3.3	0.8	Achieved	3.1	0.8	Adequately achieved
CO-2	4.0	4.2	1.1	Achieved	4.8	1.2	Overemphasised
CO-3	3.0	3.2	1.1	Achieved	2.9	1.0	Achieved
CO-4	2.0	1.2	0.6	Not achieved	1.1	0.5	Not achieved
CO-5	1.0	—	—	Not addressed	—	—	Not addressed

a From Table 9.

b Estimated as ratio of weight/intended emphasis of CO.

c Not achieved if I_SP-CO < 0.6; adequately achieved if I_SP-CO < 0.8; achieved if I_SP-CO < 1.15; overemphasised if I_SP-CO >1.15.

Table 11 Relative achievement of PO based on student performance.

CO number	Weight of CO-PO link^Footnotea	Simple approach			Elaborate approach
		Weight^Footnoteb	ISP-PO ^c	Comment^Footnoted	Weight^Footnoteb	ISP-PO ^c	Comment^Footnoted
CO-1	2.2	2.1	1.0	Achieved	2.0	0.9	Achieved
CO-2	2.0	1.5	0.8	Adequately achieved	1.4	0.7	Adequately achieved
CO-3	4.0	3.6	0.9	Achieved	3.6	0.9	Achieved
CO-4	1.6	1.2	0.7	Adequately achieved	1.4	0.8	Achieved
CO-5	4.2	3.5	0.8	Achieved	3.6	0.9	Achieved

a From Table 3.

b Estimated following the procedure outlined in Table 3 using the weights estimated in Table 9.

c Estimated as ratio of weight/weight of CO-PO link.

d Not achieved if I_SP-PO < 0.6; adequately achieved if I_SP-PO < 0.8; achieved if I_SP-PO < 1.15; overemphasised if I_SP-PO >1.15.

Figure 2 (a) Original alignment (before) and (b) re-alignment (after) of delivered CCU and SAU with CO as indicated by I_CCU-CO, I_SAU-CO, and I_SAU-CO/I_CCU-CO.

Figure 3 (a) Original alignment (before) and (b) re-alignment (after) of delivered CCU and SAU with PO as indicated by I_CCU-PO, I_SAU-PO, and I_SAU-PO/I_CCU-PO.

Figure 4 Relative achievement of (a) CO and (b) PO based on student performance before and after re-alignment of delivered CCU and SAU with CO and PO as indicated by I_SP-CO and I_SP-PO.