Adapting Objective Structured Practical Examinations for Summative Assessment in Engineering and Science: Evaluating Practical and Professional Skills

Engineering graduates often struggle to transition from education to practice, since they do not meet employers' expectations regarding professional skills, such as communication and problem-solving. In this respect, engineering practice and education remain misaligned, as traditional summative assessments in higher engineering education typically fail to capture the full spectrum of professional skills on an individual level. To address these limitations, we developed a comprehensive summative assessment that tests professional and practical skills alongside knowledge by adapting the format Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) from healthcare education to engineering and science education. OSPE consists of a series of examination stations at each of which the examinee is required to perform process-based tasks within realistic simulated scenarios. This practice paper presents the development and the ongoing implementation of an OSPE combined with written tasks. Using an evidence-based, four-stage approach, we first completed the development process, including blueprinting, defining standard settings, creating a standardised evaluation tool and a standardised station writing template, and designing OSPE stations and written tasks. In the second stage, the designed stations and written tasks were piloted by a mock test, refined, and finalised accordingly. While the final implementation stages of administration and evaluation are still ongoing, our preliminary insights identified the following crucial steps: blueprinting, designing whole-task stations, ensuring feasibility, and recruiting human resources. Although the educational impact of the new assessment format remains to be validated, our four-stage approach offers a development process and standardised tools to transfer OSPEs in other courses within engineering education.