Assessment and Students Alignment: The Case of a Portuguese Business Simulation Course

Polytechnic of Porto, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

^* Corresponding author: helena@iscap.ipp.pt

Abstract

In high education, assessment components are very important as condition the student’s success. Such components must involve several issues including soft and hard skills. The quality of education will depend on the alignment of such skill and their assimilation by students. We present a course taught in Portuguese, belonging to the graduation of Accounting and Administration, that covers several assessment tasks such as oral presentation, written exams, operationalization of tasks, assessment of physical dossiers, punctuality and attendance, ethical behaviour, and company management report. Data were collected in 2019 thought to triangulate methods, namely documental analyses, direct observation, and paper questionnaires. We aim to evaluate the degree of importance perceived by students for each evaluation component. We conclude that the students consider all of the components very important, attributing less importance to hard skills, namely the multidisciplinary contents evaluated thought written exams. This paper contributes to higher education studies by presenting the alignment of an assessment model and students.