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Assessing the competences associated with a nursing Bachelor thesis by means of rubrics
M Llaurado-Serra1, E Rodríguez1, A Gallart1
1Nursing Department, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Sant Cugat, Spain.
Background:
Writing a Bachelor thesis is the last step in obtaining a university degree. The thesis may be job- or research-orientated, but it must demonstrate certain degree-level competences. Rubrics are a useful way of unifying the assessment criteria.
Objectives:
To design a system of rubrics for assessing the competences associated with the Bachelor thesis of a nursing degree, to examine the system's reliability and validity and to analyse results in relation to the final thesis mark.
Design:
Cross-sectional and psychometric study conducted between 2012 and 2014.
Settings:
Nursing degree at a Spanish university.
Participants:
Twelve tutors who designed the system of rubrics. Students (n = 76) who wrote their Bachelor thesis during the 2013-2014 academic year.
Methods:
After deciding which aspects would be assessed, who would assess them and when, the tutors developed seven rubrics (drafting process, assessment of the written thesis by the supervisor and by a panel, student self-assessment, peer assessment, tutor evaluation of the peer assessment and panel assessment of the viva). We analysed the reliability (inter-rater and internal consistency) and validity (convergent and discriminant) of the rubrics, and also the relationship between the competences assessed and the final thesis mark.
Results:
All the rubrics had internal consistency coefficients >0.80. The rubric for oral communication skills (viva) yielded inter-rater reliability of 0.95. Factor analysis indicated a unidimensional structure for all but one of the rubrics, the exception being the rubric for peer assessment, which had a two-factor structure. The main competences associated with a good quality Bachelor thesis were written communication skills and the ability to work independently.
Conclusion:
The assessment system based on seven rubrics is shown to be valid and reliable. Writing a Bachelor thesis requires a range of degree-level competences and it offers nursing students the opportunity to develop their evidence-based practice skills.
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