Hi Alex,
I am happy to expand - as David Boud says, 'the devil is in the
detail'. The course is an introduction to graphic design, undergrad,
so lends itself to preliminary exercises introducing basic design
principles and elements. Assessment is embedded in the exercise
process itself - formative as students conduct the exercises,
summative when submitted.
The main project assessment comprises evidence of research (primary
and secondary), design concept (experimentation + evidence of
research application), design synthesis (how the concept is applied +
its overall success - the 'outcome') and presentation (technical
skill and verbal articulation of concept). This seems to be a pretty
standard breakdown in my design teaching experience - how you weight
it will depend on your own context.
Each section comprises 45% of the final mark, with 10% for
participation, collaboration, attendance (to encourage group feedback
+ involvement). This is so that a student can't 'wing it' with the
final project outcome alone, and must participate equally in each
stage and feedback sessions to score well overall. I include
different assessment tools such as peer assessment (during the
project), group assessment (presentation of a research topic),
self-assessment (learning journal) and teacher assessment (final
grading criterion-referenced, not norm-referenced). All components
include formative assessment in the form of timely verbal and/or
written feedback but not all are summative - Boud (1995) provides a
good rationale for this (which I don't follow!).
As I suggested, this means more work for the teacher in some ways,
but also takes some of the burden off grading at the end of the
process - students have a pretty good idea of how they are going in
their learning (doesn't always mean they are happy with their final
grade though!). I suggest reading the 'rules' for peer and
self-assessment, and providing good feedback in the references
supplied. You may be familiar with these, but I found them useful as
teaching resources.
As you suggest, asking them to define their specific context (the
'meat') within a strict set of assessment criteria is useful to
critically engage them (they often produce better outcomes when given
free range) - in my subject, they all do a poster, but the content,
message, audience and response is defined by them. Be sure to
explicitly explain how each grade is awarded (ie. what they have to
do to get a pass or an HD) - I feel this is where teachers'
subjective interpretation of assessment awards occurs and is
difficult to support unless aligned with the assessment criteria -
often teachers ignore the criteria and mark on value judgement - can
result in mystification of the assessment process and student
confusion/anger.
Of course, all of this depends on how your subject is articulated
into a degree - is it one stage, an elective, part of a
transdisciplinary course - and the range of students enrolled - do
they have similar skills, knowledge, motivation. Anyway, I trust this
helps.
regards, teena
>teena clerke wrote:
>
>I have designed a number of summative assessment tools which add up
>to roughly half the subject mark (essentially evaluating design
>process, thinking and critical self-reflection), then an applied
>outcome (evaluating application of process in a defined
>communication context such as a poster - even in this context,
>students decide the communication 'content' against which I mark
>their outcome - this is a way of engaging them in the criteria - if
>they define what is to be communicated to whom, and with what
>response, they are more likely to successfully address them).
>
>
>Dear Teena,
>
>Would you expand a bit on this? I'm curious about the details of
>your assessment. Is the "applied outcome" the other 50% of the mark?
>
>I understand that you assess the outcomes (poster design, for
>example) according to the context set by the student. For outcomes,
>I have "design concept" and "presentation", they are typically 50%
>of the project mark. Thinking out loud: I wonder if I could not make
>"design concept" assessment (about 20%) the duty of the students
>themselves? Give them experience discussing the meat in the
>hamburger. "Presentation" which entails craftsmanship is best
>evaluated by those with professional experience.
>
>As you gathered, my enquiry was about going beyond traditional
>assessment. I want to make sure the summative assessment is
>appropriate and somehow incorporate formative assessment tools (now
>that Im learning the jargon) into the process.
>
>Alex
--
Teena Clerke
PO Box 1090
Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
0414 502 648
|