Case study based assessment - lessons from COVID

This proposed paper examines an online case study designed for remote assessment during covid lockdown. Students were required to prepare a full set of accounts without further guidance in an open-book exam over an extended time period using a file of invoices and other documents. The intention was to mirror the experience of working in practice accounting utilising a format suitable for remote assessment.
Although feedback from students at the time was positive, this assessment was very time-consuming to prepare and administer. Following pressures from academic and professional bodies, the assessment reverted to traditional class tests in subsequent years. However, there were aspects of the assessment design that the researcher felt worth examining more fully to assess whether it had value now that students have returned to campus.
Using an action research framework, this paper discusses the rationale, design and implementation of the case study. The students who undertook the case study are now being surveyed to reflect on their attitudes to the assessment in the context of their return to in-person examination and, for some, after undertaking work experience in accounting firms. This evaluation will provide evidence to inform the value of such assessment in a post-covid environment.