Authentic Assessment - The Right Choice for Students Studying Law?

Abstract

Law students benefit from authentic assessment. This was the clear result from a small study of the experiences of 16 law students in a new course where an assessment required them to write a research submission to a real entity. Students gained experience in undertaking a real-life task and the results were overwhelmingly positive and strongly in favour of authentic assessment. This article details the study undertaken. Although the findings must be read in the context of the study’s limitations, they do show the potential for authentic assessment to enhance students’ learning experiences by injecting meaning and purpose into their assessment tasks and better preparing them for legal practice.