Defining authentic assessment towards its achievement and implementation in seafarer education and training

As evidenced from past research presented in this paper, seafarer students and employers are dissatisfied with traditional assessment methods in its ability to engage students in learning and develop skills for transfer from classrooms to the workplace. Although authentic assessments conducted in real world contexts may provide a possible solution, there is a dearth of research on it in the area of seafarer education and training (SET). Moreover, the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW) Code 1995, that provides global, minimum standards of competence, overlooks to include authentic assessment as a method for demonstrating competence. Hence, to enhance the understanding of authentic assessment towards achieving it in SET, this paper expands on the individual characteristics provided by major authors that in combination define the concept. The characteristics are categorised under ‘tasks’ and ‘processes’ that result in the ‘outcomes’ of: higher student engagement, ability to transfer skills to different contexts, contextual and multiple evidence of competence, and valid (relevant to workplace) and reliable (multiple and consistent) student performance. Future research will design authentic assessments in SET using the defined characteristics and collect empirical evidence towards its impact on seafarer student learning and skills development.