Introduction

The CALOHEA project organized by the Tuning Academy of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands together with the ASEAN University Network (AUN) is co-funded by the European Commission.

This joins thirty-one institutions across eight countries within ASEAN and five countries within the European Union. Each Subject Area Group (SAG) is formed by the institutional team under the field of Civil Engineering, Education and Medicine, which carefully selected over shared values and complementary expertise for maximum impact at the institutional, national and regional levels. Moreover, enhancing higher education standards across Southeast Asia through three key mechanisms: framework consolidation, student workload estimation, and authentic assessment integration is an aim of the project.

Naresuan University (NU), under the subject area of the civil engineering, is actively involved in contributing significantly to the development and implementation of these mechanisms. Mechanism 1 focuses on developing a unified framework for higher education, Mechanism 2 centers upon accurately estimate and manage student workload, and Mechanism 3 introduces Authentic Assessment to integrate real-world tasks into evaluations of student. These efforts collectively seek to improve educational quality, ensure balanced workloads, and support learning outcomes across participating institutions.

Mechanism 1: Regional Subject-Specific Qualifications & Assessment Reference Frameworks

According to Mechanism 1 of the CALOHEA Project, we aim to consolidate a framework for higher education across Southeast Asian institutions. This framework is developed with the cooperation of various institutions under this project. Naresuan University is one of them, which specifically participated in designing the civil engineering program.

The process of development involved several steps:

Initially, we discussed the framework among project members and developed it based on national reference documents and papers. Subsequently, we conducted interviews with related academics in the field to gather opinions on our framework. Additionally, we also interviewed faculty alumni and employers to assess their agreement with the proposed outcome framework. The results from these discussions and interviews were brought to our subject area group for further discussion. Finally, we consolidated all feedback during the general project meetings to obtain the final framework.

To see the CALOHEA Reference Frameworks, please visit https://calohea.org/

Mechanism 2: Student Workload Measurement

Mechanism 2 strives to accurately estimate and manage student workload across different courses and academic programs within Southeast Asian higher education institutions. This mechanism ensures a balanced workload distribution that enhances learning outcomes and maintains academic standards.

The student workload was estimated by application of the four tools including Tool 1: Desk estimation, Tool 2: End-of-Semester Questionnaire, Tool 3: Diary/Logbook and Tool 4: Focus Group.

By systematically estimating and managing student workload, Mechanism 2 ensures that academic programs are designed to balance educational quality and well-being of students, ultimately leading to more effective and sustainable learning environments.

Mechanism 3: Authentic Assessment of Programme Learning Outcomes

According to Mechanism 3 of the project, we attempt to introduce the concept of Authentic Assessment (AuA) into the program. This involves designing and integrating real-world tasks into study outcome assessments at both the subject and program levels. We view AuA as a quality assessment that complements Mechanism 2, which focuses on workload quantity distribution.

After establishing a mutual understanding of Authentic Assessment among team members and the lecturers who are responsible for the civil engineering program at Naresuan University, we are currently encouraging the implementation of AuA through the meetings of department and faculty. This includes the development of medium-term to long-term action plans and initially designing the pilot of AuA in relevant courses related to sustainability and lifelong learning outcomes.

Additionally, we are disseminating public awareness of NU's participation in the project via webpages of the department and digital platforms. Our goal is to facilitate the adoption of Authentic Assessment at the levels of department and faculty, thereby benefiting the efficient student-learning outcomes as well as enhancing the quality assurance efforts of the faculty.