Learner-Educator Co-creation: A Case for Enhancing Authentic Assessment in Nursing Education

Abstract

Authentic assessments support learner needs and meaningful learning by requiring students to use knowledge in a way that develops their competence to solve problems in professional contexts. Improved integration of authentic assessment in nursing education is needed to better prepare learners for practice. The focus of this critical discussion paper is on 1) improving existing definitions of authentic assessment, and 2) arguing that learner-educator co-creation is a strategy for improving authenticity. We advocate for including the following as essential elements of authenticity in nursing assessments; (1) realistic context or tasks; (2) cognitive complexity and appropriate challenge; (3) inclusion of strategies to promote evaluative judgement; and (4) degree of collaboration. Then we illustrate how co-creation improves each of these elements of authenticity, which has not been previously done in the literature.  Combining authentic assessment with co-creation is argued to promote meaningful, inclusive, and caring learner-educator relationships that have a lasting impact on learner empowerment and readiness for nursing practice. Arguments in this paper are situated in a nursing context but drawn from multi-disciplinary literature. Readers are encouraged to consider how the value of combining co-creation and authentic assessment may be transferrable to other learning contexts.