Graduation internship assessment master

Summary
This page describes the procedure for the assessment of the graduation internship of the master's degree programme.

The student receives formative feedback during the graduation internship and at the end of the graduation internship there is a graduation session where the student presents the graduation work in front of a broad audience. This is followed by a defence before the thesis committee and then the summative assessment is determined and substantiated.

During the graduation internship, the graduate will receive in accordance with the assessment policy formative feedback from the business supervisor and any other stakeholders of the work field partner where the student completes the graduation internship. Feedback is focused on both content and process. The assessors also provide feedback in their role of supervisor (see further section 3.2, the role of assessors). Halfway through the graduation internship, an evaluation moment takes place where the company supervisor, the student and the assessors evaluate progress. The company supervisor gives development-oriented feedback to the graduate and the student also evaluates himself (both are recorded). Based on this input and their own observations, the assessors share their findings on progress with the student and also record this in Canvas. The findings are explained and support the student with feedback, feedforward and feed-up.

Summative assessment is, in accordance with the assessment policy, holistically determined during the graduation session based on the criteria set out in the assessment form and with the following inputs:

• The progression throughout the graduation internship;
• The portfolio as delivered by the student at the end of the graduation internship;
• The input from the company supervisor as retrieved during the 2nd company visit;
• The feedback from the external expert;
• The presentation and answering of questions during the graduation session.

The portfolio contains the completed professional products relevant for the assessment and additional information such as a reading guide, a process report or a thesis. This gives the assessors and external expert a picture of the course of and the work delivered during the graduation internship. The student works on the professional products and additional information throughout the entire graduation internship, allowing the assessors to provide feedback and feed forward on these throughout the entire course of the graduation internship and not just at the end.

The 1st assessor provides formative feedback throughout the graduation internship, orally at least once every 2 weeks. Furthermore, formative feedback, feed forward and feedup is recorded in Canvas at a number of points during the graduation internship:

1. At the completion of the problem analysis and preparation of the project plan or project document ;
2. Halfway through the graduation internship which includes the evaluation of the company supervisor and the student's self-evaluation.

At the end of the graduation internship, after handing in the portfolio, the assessors agree on their findings on the graduation work and give feed-forward to the student that he/she can still take into account when preparing for the graduation session.
The 2nd assessor also gives formative feedback, in particular on 1) the project plan or project document that is made in the first weeks of the graduation internship on the basis of the problem analysis; 2) During the feedback moment halfway through the graduation internship, the 1st and 2nd assessors give formative feedback and feed-forward.

Summative assessment takes place at the graduation session after the presentation and defence by the student. Assessment by both assessors including advice from the company supervisor and external expert. Before the graduation session, the assessors have already discussed and calibrated their findings with at least 2 other assessors.

The company supervisor supervises the graduate during the entire graduation internship and can follow its progress most directly, thus providing important information for the benefit of the assessment. The company supervisor provides formative feedback to the graduate during the entire graduation internship, allowing the student to work towards the expected level and develop in a focused manner. Also, halfway through the graduation internship, the company supervisor provides written developmental feedback to the student that is also available for the assessors to use for their formative feedback and feed forward halfway through the graduation internship. At the end of the graduation internship, the company supervisor provides a written evaluation of the graduate student's work and development and discusses this with the 1st assessor for the benefit of the summative assessment.

In addition to the company supervisor and the two assessors, a fourth role is involved in the assessment of the graduation internship, the external expert. The external expert has both an advisory role on the assessment of the graduating student in which it is directly involved and a more general role to give feedback on the quality of the graduation process, the level of the students in general as well as the connection of the knowledge and skills acquired by the Fontys ICT students with the ICT professional field, see Role and tasks of external expert. The external expert reads the portfolio of the graduate, and is part of the graduation committee during the graduation session. The aim is to involve an external expert in the assessment at each graduation session, with availability of suitable experts a potentially limiting factor.

In preparation for the graduation session, the assessors collect all input as mentioned above. The assessors jointly establish a preliminary assessment. To increase the reliability of the assessments, this is followed by a calibration meeting where at least 4 assessors jointly fine-tune the assessments of their graduating students, thereby building a substantiated and common assessment framework.

The graduation session is physically on location in Eindhoven, where the student presents the graduation work and answers questions. The graduation session is public unless otherwise decided by the PLOU, based on substantiated request from the student to do so (in case of strict confidentiality or in case a public session does not support the student's development). Graduation sessions take place in weeks 19 and 20 (for Education for Professionals students also possible in wk 10). Invitations to the public sessions include students, lecturers, PiE, PiI and family and others directly involved.

If a graduation session is scheduled, it always goes ahead unless the student decides otherwise. If the student decides not to proceed with the session, the final result of the graduation internship is insufficient and restart of the graduation internship will follow. Assessors therefore cannot themselves decide not to let the session go ahead, even if no or an incomplete portfolio has been submitted.

The student presents the thesis work for 20 minutes, preferably including a demo or product demonstration as part of the presentation. After the presentation, the audience (if present) has the opportunity to ask questions for a maximum of 5 minutes. After this, defence takes place where the student defends himself/herself to the thesis committee. (maximum 20 minutes).

The thesis committee consists of:

1. External expert;
2. 2nd assessor or chairman;
3. 1st assessor;
4. Company supervisor.

During the defence, the chairman gives the members of the thesis committee one by one the opportunity to ask a question in the above order (in several rounds). The chairman sees to it, that the members of the thesis committee do not hold monologues, but that the candidate is asked questions and that no discussions arise outside the candidate.

In case of an “unsatisfactory” assessment, the assessors determine the form and duration of the new graduation internship. This may be a full restart, or a more limited assignment that allows the student to demonstrate the identified deficiencies.Ê

After the defence, the thesis committee (without the presence of the student and audience) considers the assessment. Having heard everything, the chairman of the thesis committee determines the assessment. For the assessment, the form is used and processed as described in the paragraph below (maximum 20 minutes).

At the end of the graduation session, the graduation committee (in the person of the 1st assessor) will announce and explain the result to the student (not public). The announcement will last a maximum of 5 minutes.

The assessment form is divided into a number of dimensions. A U/S/G/O can be obtained for each dimension. For each dimension, a minimum of an S (Sufficient) must be obtained to achieve a satisfactory final assessment, whereby the final assessment is determined holistically (no numerical calculation of the final assessment based on the dimensions but an integral final assessment).â

If the final assessment is unsatisfactory (Unsatisfactory), there are two options: improve or re-graduation.

1. If re graduation is required, the candidate has to go through all the steps of the graduation process again.
2. In case of improvement, assessors record the following:
   • first, the learning outcomes for which improvement is still needed are substantiated;
   • secondly, the term of improvement is recorded and thirdly, by whom and how is assessed;
   • the term of improvement is as short as possible, but certainly no longer than 10 weeks;
   • the final assessment for graduation after repair is determined integrally by the examiners;
   • if the improvement is not successful within the time limit or is still insufficient afterwards, the candidate must graduate again.

At the end of the assessment (and again after improvement if necessary), the assessment form is completed and the assessment is substantiated. It is then signed by the assessors and handed in so that the Student Desk can process it further. The 2nd assessor is responsible for this. The assessment is entered into the registration system by an employee of the Student Desk. The assessment form is also placed in the Canvas course by the 1st assessor so that it can be accessed by the student.

The student must make every effort so that the graduation session can take place at the time as agreed and scheduled. In full-time study programmes after 20 weeks, in part-time study programmes it may be agreed otherwise. If, due to special and/or unforeseen circumstances, a student is unable to attend the graduation session, he/she must report to the 1st assessor and at the same time submit an individual request to the graduation committee, stating reasons and submitting supporting documents, such as a dean's statement in case of illness.

The graduation committee may decide to adjourn the graduation session if the reasons are found to be legitimate. If the reasons are not assessed as legitimate, no assessment will be determined and the assessors will advise the graduation committee on the form of the resit.

Starting point: the graduation session will proceed even if the (original) assessors or external expert are not present in full. Possible situations:

• The external expert or company supervisor is absent; in that case there is formally no problem as they are only advisory in the assessment.
• The 2nd assessor is ill; he/she reports this as soon as possible via the Student+ Desk to the responsible PLOU, and the latter arranges a replacement; this may be any other graduating lecturer; if this replacement can only be arranged last minute, it is possible that the assessment will take place but that the determination of the assessment will be postponed (as the 2nd assessor has not yet had time to prepare the content of the assessment);
• The 1st assessor is ill at the graduation session; he reports this as soon as possible via the Student+ Desk to the PLOU responsible, who arranges a replacement;
  • In case it is reported on time, the substitute takes over the tasks in full: preliminary consultation with the company, reviewing and assessing portfolio, calibration, etc.
  • In case last minute and the 1st assessor is unable to adequately transfer to the replacement, the assessment is still postponed. This is then the only situation where we cannot stick to the stated premise.

The Student Desk acts as a reporting point in case of illness of one of the assessors, the company supervisor or external expert. From there, the PLOU concerned is informed so that it can take the above-mentioned actions.

The information on this page is intended for stakeholders in assessments of graduation internships at Fontys ICT. Graduation session information is distributed by the Student Desk to students, external experts, company supervisors.