Assessment activities often fragment knowledge rather than consolidating it in ways that might be used in practice.
By contrast, integrative activities are intended to link different kinds of work within a module, across modules and stages (e.g. years and semesters, or between the course and practice settings.
See also Projects and research-oriented investigations
Integrative activities
Students assemble and re-process their work from different sources or parts of the course, often reflecting and analysing their own work.
Students repackage earlier assignments to prompt reflection on themes beyond those for which the tasks were originally completed.
Integrating assessment over a single unit or module
Integration involves a sequence of linked assessments over several tasks.
It can include developing an assignment in stages (see above, Integrative activities) or having a set of compatible assessment tasks that together build capacity for further learning and develop skills in making judgements.
These activities develop students' knowledge and skills base and allow them to demonstrate a range of learning outcomes in coherent ways relevant to the module.
Integrating assessment across units or over time
Students receive cases to study two weeks before an examination. The exam tests integration of knowledge across different areas, in various forms eg. short answer or multiple choice. It requires knowledge of application which cannot be found in the cases or set texts alone. Students often cooperate by organising study groups to explore the cases before the exam.
The overall test is a way of testing this integration.
See Segers (1997)
A capstone activity
In programs that are fragmented, a final task (which may be the equivalent of a course or course module) is an assignment that demonstrates the learning achieved across prior courses. This is typically the final activity of a program or degree. No new subject matter is studied; rather emphasis is placed on forming links between different areas, demonstrating connections and achievement of overall program outcomes.
See this description from Indiana State University.
Patchwork text assessment
A patchwork text assessment consists of a number of discrete and complete tasks. When assembled together the tasks produce an overall representation of the range of learning outcomes needed for a course.
The separate pieces are shared with other students and a reflexive commentary on the pieces is constructed for the final production.
See Winter (2003).
Assessments linked to generic attributes/key skills/program outcomes
Assessments can be organised so that each task contributes part of the overall generic or graduate attributes for a unit or course. Students can rate their own achievements and compare them to the staff's expected outcomes, not only in terms of the task but also with regard to their overall attributes. An example is the ReView program.
ReView provides online access by students to a teacher's feedback on assessment activities. With direct linking of assessment criteria to the encompassing graduate attribute, ReView enables the student to develop a more holistic understanding of their performance on a given task. The student is also able to see how they performed on a given criteria in relation to the performance of the rest of the class on that criteria. Grades, rather than numbers, are used for the feedback because this is a more effective way of communicating to a student the quality of their work. As well, teachers report that marking is much easier to carry out.
Graduate attributes can also be recorded and tracked through learning portfolios. For an example, see UNSW medicine ePortfolio
Learning portfolios, learning journals
Students keep a record of their learning and observations across a wide range of activities in learning portfolios, journals, etc. Some stress reflection, others integration across activities or modules, the linking of practice placements with theoretical material, noticing process, etc. They can take a conventional written form—either free-flowing or according to a template/standard contents—or electronically—as an e-portfolio or blog.
See Australian ePortfolio Project