Programmatic assessment: a literature review of challenges, opportunities and useful tools to support student transition to the workplace

Abstract

Assessment is a vital component in higher education, measuring student achievement, directing student learning and demonstrating institutional quality assurance. However, evidence suggests that traditional assessment practices rely too heavily on singular high-stakes results, provide limited feedback, lack diversity in assessment types, can be inequitable, and may encourage cheating. This paper explores the current perspectives regarding the use of programmatic assessment (PA) in tertiary education. A narrative literature review, including over 180 items, synthesised current understanding of PA and informs implications on tertiary education practice. Findings emphasise that the inherent ongoing nature of PA, including iterative feedback, mentoring support, curriculum alignment, and clarity in assessed data collection and interpretation can provide improved student learning. Specifically, PA can help students recognise and build professional identity and employability skills to support their journey to the workplace, and subsequent lifelong learning. This paper offers implications for practice for tertiary educators when implementing and supporting PA, including suggestions for how tools such as ePortfolios, micro-credentials and GenAI can be utilised to enable student professional identity building. A series of recommendations for practice are included, to both summarise the research and guide educators embarking on their PA journey.