Intro and background
I am a HPL first-year design tutor, currently looking after a year group and responsible for assessment. The assessment conducted on my course is summative and students are expected to submit all their work at the end of each unit. The students in the first year come from a range of different backgrounds and educational backgrounds (as mentioned in case study 1), with some used to the expectations of HE and some are not.
Evaluation
When new to a different way of study, students can struggle to manage their time and can get overwhelmed with the workload.Despite getting regular feedback throughout the term in their design sessions, the emphasis on the summative assessment at the end can feel like a lot of pressure with the focus is on the grade, rather than the work completed.
Moving forward
In the first instance, and something that I have already been doing, is to try to add in some ‘mini’ deadlines and formative assessment points. One formative assessment point prior to a big break (Winter or Spring) as typically in our unit structures, the students are expected to come to the first session following this break with a fully developed design proposal that they have selected to make.
Secondly, to make use of technology such as Padlet, scheduling in deadlines for the students to upload certain pieces of work for feedback. Based on the student’s timetable, create four ‘mini deadlines’ in which the students can upload work to a Padlet or similar technological software for tutor feedback. By introducing the mini deadlines, it will help the students to break down their workload into manageable chunks during the term, as well as offering them feedback on how the work could be improved, inspired by ‘Assessment Patterns’ [M.Russell, 2010]
Explore formalising assessment points for each of the elements required for submission by the brief rather than one big summative assessment point at the end. Proposal: A sketchbook, a portfolio, and a technical file/product development record and the outcome [M.Russell, 2010]. Each element would have its own assessment point and date, with feedback written specifically for the element submitted resulting in individual grades that would then be totalled up/balanced out utilising a tool. (Perhaps this could be done in collaboration a fellow peer on the PGCERT, who’s currently developing the GDC Unit 8 grader).
Finally, after researching the impact of introducing pass/fail as ‘compassionate feedback’ [Hill. V Et al, 2023] consider if it could be beneficial to students in their first year. An idea is to make each area of submission pass / fail so that the pressure to ‘grade chase’ is removed as they enter a new format of study. Evidence suggests raised anxiety when grades are re-introduced, to combat this, we could introduce a final summative deadline at the end of the year. It could be that the students put together and submit a portfolio of the work they are most proud of (and that they know is already a ‘pass’ standard) to get a final grade, this would be designed to prepare them for the re-introduction of a graded system for the rest of their studies.
To conclude…
I believe based on my research as mentioned above that these steps would be a healthy way of introducing the students to a new educational system compassionately.