Debates continue about assessment methods and tasks in higher engineering education that would enable assessment of cognitive learning attributes and attainment of graduate attributes. This study explored the students’ perceptions of the conventional and alternative assessment methods that are relevant and could be used to assess cognitive learning and graduate attributes in undergraduate civil engineering education. The study focused on an undergraduate civil engineering programme at a university of technology in South Africa. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed, in which a survey questionnaire was administered, followed by focus group interviews from a sample of 230 and 46 students, respectively. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted. The findings show that students perceived both conventional and alternative assessment instruments as appropriate to varying degrees; they saw different assessment instruments as effectively assessing the cognitive learnings and attainment of graduate attributes. The central finding is that an apposite mix of different conventional and alternative assessment instruments might assist in attaining effective assessment in undergraduate civil engineering.

中文翻译：

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土木工程专业学生对常规和替代评估方法的看法

关于高等工程教育中的评估方法和任务的争论仍在继续，这将有助于评估认知学习属性和获得毕业生属性。这项研究探讨了学生对传统的和替代的评估方法的看法，这些方法是相关的，可用于评估本科土木工程教育中的认知学习和研究生属性。该研究的重点是南非理工大学的土木工程本科课程。采用了一种解释性的顺序混合方法设计，在其中进行了调查问卷，然后分别从230名和46名学生的样本中进行了焦点小组访谈。进行了定性和定量分析。调查结果表明，学生在不同程度上都认为常规和替代评估工具是适当的；他们看到了不同的评估工具，可以有效地评估认知学习和毕业生的素质。中心发现是适当组合使用不同的常规评估工具和替代评估工具可能有助于在本科土木工程中获得有效的评估。