Creating authenticity in online learning and assessment: the use of emotion in mimetic simulation

Authentic assessment theory has identified critical elements and theorized benefits for student outcomes in management schools. More needs to be done, however, to empirically test relationships between different aspects of authenticity and student outcomes, particularly in the postgraduate online learning environment. In this paper we examine whether an online simulation-based learning and assessment design, using only standard learning management system (LMS) functionality, has measurable ‘authenticity’ in an online postgraduate business course. In addition, we assess whether the online simulation-based design is associated with improvements in student learning behaviors and learning outcomes. Last, we enquire into possible mechanisms for improving learning behaviors and outcomes, focusing on students’ ability to recognize emotion in the online simulation, as well as their ability to recognize their own emotional response. Using bespoke and constructively aligned simulation-based teaching, learning, and assessment activities, this paper analyses qualitative data collected through lecturer and student interviews and student work submitted online, as well as data analytics from the LMS in both control and experimental conditions. Seven critical elements of authentic assessment were identified by participants, including new aspects of authenticity specific to online simulations. Students watched lecture videos and viewed and participated in online discussion more frequently in the online simulation than in the control condition. Students indicated greater perceived mastery of, and confidence in, the learning outcomes and recognized emotional content and their own emotional reaction, as a mechanism for driving their learning behaviors. These findings make important contributions to authentic assessment theory and have practical implications for using online simulations in postgraduate study