Authentic Tasks

What is it?

An authentic learning task is closely related to an authentic learning context. The context frames the authentic learning experience whereas the task outlines the various phases or steps that students are required to undertake to complete the task.

Authentic learning tasks reflect complex, real-world problems. The goal is to provide students with tasks that require them to address problems and to apply their knowledge and skills to meet the task requirements. The task may require students to work in groups, conduct individual reflection or a phase of self-directed study as part of the task requirements.

An authentic task will typically require students to create a product and this product should align with the type of artefact that is produced in the real-world, authentic context that is being addressed.

Why use it?

Authentic tasks are useful if you want your students to apply the knowledge and skills that they have gained to address complex, ill-structured problems that mirror the types of problems they will face in their working lives. Additionally, you can use their engagement in authentic tasks to require students to reflect on their learning or to collaborate with their peers. As such, an authentic learning task may align to multiple learning outcomes.

How do I do it?

These are some examples taken from Sydney University’s teaching resources hub .

• Year 1 education task. Produce a short guide for beginning primary school teachers on aspects of literacy.
• Postgraduate public health. Develop a health intervention for a condition of your choice for a student’s country of origin.
• Year 3 history. Create a report for the public in the form of a blog about a community of your choice.

All of these examples may be individual or group tasks or a combination of both.

Suggested tools

• If it is important for the structure of your product to align with the structure that is found in real-world contexts (e.g. reports, posters etc.) then it will be important to assist your students to develop any necessary skills that are required to produce these types of artefacts.
• Consider using blogs, wikis and the discussion board in vUWS if there is a collaborative component of the tasks.
• Individual reflection can be implemented using the journal tool in vUWS.

Considerations

Although there is an emphasis on the design of highly planned learning activities and assessment tasks, authentic learning tasks can also be introduced in a piecemeal way in your unit. For example, consider any formative quizzes that you write to test for your students’ capacity to apply their knowledge in real-world contexts rather than quizzing them on knowledge that is divorced from its context. Similarly, you might wish to introduce an authentic task in your face-to-face or online classroom that is more of a brainstorming activity rather than a task that requires the submission of a formal artefact through vUWS.

Resources

Griffith University’s resource on authentic learning – https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/exlnt/entry/3928/view

Theoretical considerations on authentic learning from Harvard University – https://ablconnect.harvard.edu/authentic-learning

An introduction to authentic assessment in an online setting – https://ctl.wiley.com/authentic-assessment-in-the-online-classroom/