To ensure knowledge creation and application in the affective domain – AIMS Gold Medal

Assurance of learning is an important aspect of outcome-based education and the accreditation process. The desire to make students learn and see learning happening is a significant motivator for knowledge facilitators. Assessment is an important mechanism to assure learning and involves stringent processes and metrics. Learning happens in three domains, namely cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The affective domain deals with feelings, motivations, attitudes, etc. To assess learning in the affective domain, one has to not only measure the extent of acquisition of knowledge but also the extent to which the learning was applied to change the attitude or behaviour of the learner. The extent of acquisition can be assessed using tools like tests, case studies, and assignments. However, assessing the extent of the application of learning for behavioural or attitudinal changes demands knowledge about the experiences of students using the learned skills in their day-to-day lives. It is against this background that journaling was used as an assessment tool in the course, “Emotional Intelligence for Managers” to assess the higher-order learning outcomes of the affective domain. Components like tests, quizzes, case studies, assignments, and meta-analyses of research papers as assessment components assured that students had acquired knowledge. However, the higher order levels like valuing, organizing and internalizing were not captured effectively through those components. To cater to this unique need, Journaling was used. Journaling is an activity through which students record their experiences of using the learned concepts in different situations, reflect on the experiences and learn from them. This proved to be an effective tool to assess knowledge creation and application. From the lived-in experiences of the students as recorded in their journals, the faculty was able to assess the retention and application of learning, resulting in a change in behaviour or attitude. This initiative bagged the Gold Medal from the Association of Indian Management Schools in 2021 for Innovation in Teaching at the Faculty Level.