WASHBACK ON LEARNING: THE EXPERIENCE OF OUTCOME-BASED ASSESSMENT IN A HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTION IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Malaysia has in recent years announced its decision to implement Outcome-based Education (OBE) at all Higher Learning Institutions in the country with the focus on developing world-class human capital. This paper presents the findings of a preliminary qualitative study that investigates how diploma students in a Higher Learning Institution in Malaysia experience the washback from the assessment practices as outlined in the standards of OBE. Three students who undertook an english for communication course were recruited as the informants and a semi-structured interview was subsequently administered by the researchers. The resulting themes were subjected to two inter-raters and the reliability value of which was at 90.5%. The findings revealed that technology had become one of the factors that promote the students’ learning as it played an almost significant role in the students’ selection of both in-class and out-of-class learning practices.