This podcast features two internationally acclaimed Authentic Assessment experts Professor Sally Brown and Kay Sambell, who illuminate the transformative potential of authentic assessment methods in Higher Education through their expertise and experience. Drawing upon a range of global examples, Sally and Kay provides guidance for the integration of genuine tasks and real-world contexts to elevate student engagement and competency development, advocating for a more meaningful pedagogical approach to evaluation.

Professor Sally Brown is an Independent Consultant in Learning, Teaching and Assessment and Emerita Professor at Leeds Beckett University where she was, until 2010, Pro-Vice-Chancellor. She is also Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University and formerly at the Universities of Plymouth, Robert Gordon, South Wales and Liverpool John Moores and at Australian universities James Cook Central Queensland and the Sunshine Coast.

She holds Honorary Doctorates from the universities of Plymouth, Kingston, Bournemouth, Edinburgh Napier and Lincoln. Sally is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) Senior Fellow and a National Teaching Fellow. Sally is widely published on learning, teaching and particularly assessment and enjoys working with institutions and teams on improving the student learning experience. Her publications can be accessed on www.sally-brown.net .

Professor Kay Sambell is widely known internationally for her contributions to the Assessment for Learning (AfL) movement in Higher Education, which seeks to emphasize the ways in which assessment processes can be designed to support and developing students’ learning, as well as measure it. For over two decades she has spearheaded a range of pragmatic innovations, research projects and initiatives focused on improving university student learning via assessment. She co-led the pioneering Centre for Excellence in Assessment for Learning during her time at Northumbria University. She is a UK National Teaching Fellow (2002) and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is currently an independent consultant and Visiting Professor of Assessment for Learning at the University of Sunderland and the University of Cumbria.

Kay also helped to establish and support a series of international conferences aimed at rethinking assessment practice. She is currently President of the vibrant Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) conference series, ( https://ahenetwork.org/.) which leads the development of assessment for learning.