Two things have recently happened to challenge the way I approach and think about assessment, in this article I’m going to review the following article ‘assessment patterns [M.Russell, 2010] in relation to Footwear and thoughts on changes that could be made to the current model of assessment.
This article challenges the typical way that assessment is conducted on arts courses in HE and I could see much similarities with the way that we conduct assessment on LCF, Cordwainers Footwear.
See figure 1 and 2 below:
Last year, I added a formative assessment point to the timetable, situated just before a long holiday to enable the students to show all their work to date, which I believe, helped the overall attainment of their grade. However, I still felt that more could be done, as stakes were still too high and despite regular feedback in scheduled sessions, as these sessions are not treated as ‘deadlines’ students frequently were falling behind and finding it difficult to manage their workload.
I decided to trial a further idea, which was to set a series of mini deadlines, utilising Padlet, setting dates on which students need to upload a specific piece of work to the padlet, that would enable me, as their tutor to give regular feedback.
I found it really interesting on reading Russell 2010, to see this methodology mapped out in the following diagram.
See Figure 2:
Although, I felt that this enhanced student work and attainment even further, I still feel more can be done. Also considering that students have a multitude of needs, including language barriers, neuro-diversities and the pressure of having to manage a job alongside their studies to fund their degrees.
Figure 3 of the article really got me thinking and I think it could be the perfect solution to the challenges and pressure that students face in getting their work completed on time and to a standard that they are proud of.
Some thoughts on the way that this model could work on our particular pathway are:
The input of low stake feedback points (Padlet, formative feedback points), combined with medium stake assessment points, proposed: Sketchbook submission, portfolio submission and final outcome with product development record submission. By breaking it down to the individual elements required of the brief, I feel it may help students to manage their workload better and would reduce the number of referral/deferral as well as to improve the overall grades and attainment.
Some further reading into compassionate assessment – with specific research into pass/fail marking – https://www.qaa.ac.uk/membership/collaborative-enhancement-projects/assessment/belonging-through-assessment-pipelines-of-compassion